Give me a reason to live
by Makany
Summary: This a continuation of the series Shiki: As Natsuno woke up, Akira and Kaori were sitting next to him. Because the siblings know that he is alive, he can t think of ending his life. Now he is trying to figure out why he survived and is even bumping into his worst enemy. However this isn t the only problem he need to deal with...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don´t own Shiki.**

**Author´s note: This is my first fanfiction in English, so please lead me in the right direction if I made mistakes. Reviews are welcome. I´m also a great fan of the series and the manga (read manga first). The drawing is pretty good which made things sad because so many needed to die. This is a continuation after the fire from Satoba. Sorry, if the story is awkward. (Sometimes it can happen) Hope you will enjoy!**

A sharp pain went through his head. Someone was talking not far away from his ears. His body couldn´t move at all, his throat was dry and as he opened his eyes, the pain got worse. With a blurry sight Natsuno wasn´t able to see the two persons who were bowing to him. Time to time his blue eyes could recognize the two humans. They weren´t stranger, they had a familiar young face. The three were so close that it made the jinrou feel more sick than he did a few a seconds ago. _To see him in such a state._ Carefully the in tears covered girl reached her hand to his face.

"Yuuki- san, you are finally aw…"

Her hand got slapped away. These two never learned! Why did they even return to him? The confusing look had turned in a doubtfully glare. "Do you never learn? I am undead! You should kill me"

The violet-haired boy realized it. Why was he still living? The younger sibling of the girl grabbed the undead´s shoulders to turn his face to him.

"What are you talking, Nii-san? We know you´re still the same. You saved me, didn´t you! And did you forget your dream about leaving this village?"

Like always Akira was loud as ever. Even Kaori gave him a supported look. But suddenly a shout made the two flinch.

"Shut up. Natsuno is sleeping!"

It was Natsuno´s father who glared at the two Tanakas. At the time he captured sight of his awaken son, he attacked him with a big hug. The brown-haired girl made happy expression as things went well. But the smile vanished in an instant as Natsuno spoke.

"How did I survive?"

The teenager expected the blank expression of Akira and Kaori. This was obvious because they didn´t know that he wanted to kill himself with Tatsumi. How was he actual able to survive his suicide? With four sticks of dynamite! Or maybe he was dead and was living in some kind dream land where dead souls rested in peace. But Kaori and Akira were alive. _They succeed escaping the village, right?_ Natsuno pinched his arm and felt the aching sensation. He was alive; the boy came to conclusion and sat straight up to look around the room. A plain empty room which only had a futon where the jinrou was sitting.

"We found you in the village on the ground", Kaori stuttered and offered Natsuno a glass of water. Akira nodded in agreement with his sister. "After the fire was clear, we returned because we were worried about you and we found you covered in a blanket."

This was awkward. The last place where he should have been was the forest. So how did he get into the village? Something smelled fishy.

"Really, you only found me"

Both gave each other a questionable glance then all of sudden Mr. Yuki said something.

"Someone was digging graves and ran away as we arrived"

The siblings stared surprised at the mental ill man.

"There was someone!?" Akira shouted shocked because he hadn´t noticed it. The light brown-haired boy went to the window which had a perfect view of the half burned village. The father was right. There were many bulges lined up on the ground. Each thorough made grave had one simple flower.

"Nii-san, could it be that the person rescued you?" His eyes sparkled of curiosity. "It´s like a hero" It was a good thing that Akira overcame the horror which played in the village but something still gave Natsuno Goosebumps.

If he was "alive" did that mean there could be a chance that other Shikis survived for an example Tatsumi. Both were jinrous and Tatsumi was stronger than him. Wasn´t it obvious that he had a higher rate of survival? That clearly made things dangerous. If that man ever wanted to kill the boy, Kaori and Akira would be in danger. Natsuno gritted his teeth. "Natsuno-san, what´s wrong?" Kaori asked with a worried tone.

Natsuno couldn´t say his suspicion and thought about another big problem

"Nothing specific, just thinking about my future…"

The blue-eyed jinrou said, trying to distract himself from his own thoughts. He was completely convinced to end his life. However being saved from the dead didn´t make him happy at all, even if the two siblings weren´t scared of him anymore, there was no meaning in his cursed life. What should he do from now on? Start a new life as fifteen year old boy and go to school like normal humans do. Unlike a regular Shiki he could walk under the sun and had no need drinking blood, normal food would work, too. The only curious thing he would like to investigate was the unknown person who might rescue him. The boy will lead a never ending life until somebody wanted to kill him or he just do another suicide. _What a great life_, Natsuno thought sarcastically and watched the younger students who managed to know what he was thinking.

"Nii-san, you can fulfill your dream and go to the school you ever wanted. Mr. Yuki said you can eat normal food and the greatest thing is, you´re moving to a big city. So you´re able to fulfill your dream"

Akira grinned satisfied. Natsuno narrowed his eyebrows to show them that he couldn´t help to force himself to rethink. With make-up he could look older and would have no problem, if someone ever asked his age. After finishing school he could get a job where he is no need to show his face. Nowadays there were works which you only need a laptop to finish their duties like the people who traveled over the whole world. They just had to send it. That would really suit him because he always wanted to work international. But what would happen after this? The not-aging was the problem. In one day he had to stop working. Should he continue working after changing identity? Maybe he should watch over Akira and Kaori just to check that there weren´t any Shiki attacking them. But this would only get more problems, Tastumi could go after them. It was a stupid idea to even think about to get a normal life… Lightly, Kaori poked on Natsuno´s arm.

"It´s better if you don´t think much about the situation."

Perhaps Kaori was right. First he should worry more about what was happening next.

"We will stay in contact, Nii-san", Akira shouted to him as Natsuno and his father entered the car.

Having moved to a city, the blue-haired boy life turned slowly normal, even if his mother didn´t return like the father mentioned from her letter. He didn´t need much time to get used to the school because he wasn´t there to make friends. The only annoying thing was the girls there. Some of them acted a bit like the pink-haired Megumi Shimizu, dressed fancy just to make somebody like you or acted mostly troublesome, and the boy thought, the people in school were more serious about their studies. There was nothing that could be done about it, only to ignore them, unless they get attached to him. Then he would be angry. But something he never dreamed of, awkwardly in the same time so expected, his nightmare came true.

**Author´s note: It´s time to place your bet. Who is the person? No, that´s a joke but you could guess in the review. Hope you enjoyed it, so that I can continue this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I´m not quite proud about the chapter because I corrected it many times. So I will say in the beginning, sorry for the crappyness. The reason I´m writing is just to have my fantasy in black and white.**

**To Salt-the-Catgirl: Thank you for your help. I´m happy you are reading this.**

**YPIAS: Your postman is a Shiki SPAN: Shiki´s panties are nice**

A roaring machine stood in front of the big school gate. The blue-eyed boy just quietly watched the big grinning driver. The two spiky hair bundles which looked like cat-ears were unmistakable. A bored sigh escaped from the lips of the teenager. This had to be true. "It has been a long time since I saw you, shitty brat", the man greeted impolitely and made more sounds with his red motorcycle. Natsuno didn´t answer and kept staring at him like he was going to murder him. His hands slid to his pocket where he hid a sharp knife. "You don´t seem to be surprised, shitty brat. Moreover you seemed alive unlike the other person…" Tatsumi noticed and gave him a questionable glance.

_Unlike the other person?_ Who did he meant, the boy thought "Aren´t you convince to die like last time. What makes you so motivated?" The younger jinrou could almost imagine that he had headache. "I already knew you may be alive. This is reason enough…" The combat knife was in reach. "Don´t even think about it. I´m not here to kick your ass" The sky blue-haired mentioned, noting the beige bag on the teenager´s waist. "But I want to kick yours, Mr. Fluffy" A vein popped out of the forehead from the muscular man.

In truth Tatsumi wanted to kill the threatening jinrou, too, however something restrained him. He had other reason to appear in front of the cheeky boy. One of his small reasons to not kill was that he would gather to much attention from the people: An adult fighting with a student in front of a school could bring many problems with. There were already some persons noticing the two who even had the intention to call the police. Still, this wouldn´t be worth enough to hold him back, the irritation which the boy always gave him was too big. Probably his huge problem in his mind was that someone was watching him in this moment. But the jinrou didn´t know where. He shouldn´t risk any wrong moves or else his leader would be angry.

"Each time I see you´re stupid face, I begin to hate you more. " he growled, grinding his teeth together, his fangs hadn´t grown yet. "We get it. Now what do you want?" The violet-haired boy perceived no real danger from the other undead. But he still snarled his words, not caring if his anger was shown. Tatsumi´s eyebrow faintly lifted. "Did you meet …" The adult stopped abruptly and threw a quick glance in an opposite direction of the school where a green, yellow painted delivery truck parked. It stopped in front of a well-known sushi restaurant. The yellow-eyed man sensed the stare once more which followed him until the school. The known sadistic smile spread on his lips when he his eyes met for a second with the ones of the (truck) driver who swiftly turned his face to the sushi master again. A grey cap covered the mail man´s face. "Watching, huh?", came out of Tatsumi and looked at the teenager back. "I´m going now. I don´t want any stress" The motorbike was set on and the man was about to drive but a question made him stop.

"How did you survive?" Natsuno couldn´t easily forget this question. Maybe it would help him to find the `someone`. Tatsumi made a weird face and stroked his chin like someone in a drama that was in thought. "Mmmmm…how, mmh? Oh, I know I saw him…Too bad, I forgot his name aaand… his face. He saved us, you know?" His mocking smile grew; he knew the boy was already aware of the unknown person, nevertheless he couldn´t help to see the violet-haired in pain and threw another glance at the driver who was carrying now the boxes in the truck. Natsuno followed the gaze and ended up staring at the brand of the truck. YPIAS could be read on the car. A hint? Before he realized that Tatsumi was gone, the man waved him with the back turned to him and drove along the road until he disappeared.

The violet-haired boy almost believed that it was a trick to distract him from the question however the driver self seemed to act suspicious, he quickly went into the driver seat as Natsuno began to stare at him. The boy wanted to cross the road until someone touched his shoulder. For a second the memory of his persistent friend shoot through his mind, it was always like that, when he let his hopes high, the sweet but bitter voice ranged in his ear, calling his name. How many times he promised himself to forget him, how many times… He wouldn´t come back, would he? He saw him dead on the wooden board, and If he was there, why wasn´t he standing beside him? It made only things painful and it became worse when he realized the one who was touching his shoulder wasn´t Tohru. His father stood beside him. "Wasn´t that guy from the village?", the grey-haired man spoke and jumped back as the angry glare of his son met him. He came at a bad timing; moreover he made him think of that person again. "Stop appearing suddenly" the jinrou said in an icy voice and walked past his old man to get into the car.

While driving home the father tried to make a normal conversation. "How was school?" No answer. "Did you get along with …" His mouth shut after almost finishing the questions and looked on the street to avoid another glare of Natsuno. If he ended his sentence Natsuno wouldn´t talk to him the rest of the day, and that meant he remembered something about the village which made him sad, very sad. Since when did he get so sensitive? The village was always so unimportant. What made him like that? This was really untypically for his son. The car finally stopped. They arrived at the district where their house was. No forest was in sight but a green garden decorated the front door of the light in green colored house. Outside it seemed to be a typical European-styled house but in the inside everything was pretty normal (beside the cameras in there). If the father couldn´t live in a village anymore where he carelessly could open door, at least he had installed a security system. Their house was built near the city however the district was quite calm place. Mr. Yuki enjoyed the sight of the little garden´s flowers unlike his son who immediately disappeared behind the door. Always the same, there were no difference when they lived in the village. Only that Natsuno became more unsocial than back then. If the father remembered right, there was a boy who kept sticking on his son´s side, even after many refusals. Like a puppy, he thought. Maybe he should get one. This would definitely help his son. But just for case he should ask.

After finishing his homework his gaze was glued on the window. His room was on the second floor. Nobody could suddenly stand in front of the window unless they would jump. However Natsuno could hear a faintly sound which neared the house. He stood up and peeked outside before closing the window to not let any cold air in. He sensed it, the person who was standing outside. The boy wasn´t afraid anymore, he was already an undead. What would the stranger gain? Or, could it be a stalker? No, the light scent of blood was smelled on the person and it was an unknown scent which he never smelled.

The person knocked on the glass and the jinrou could finally see a little girl who stood on the roof. Her big eyes stared at the boy with a desperate look. She knocked again, and the window opened. Natsuno knew the person indirectly, he only knew by hearing stories about her, the leader of Shiki, Sunako, the one who made things worse in first place. Still, the feeling at his heart were mixed, (that would explain why the undead could enter the house), he just sat simply on his bed, watching the girl silently who was getting something out of her little pink bag. The color pink made the boy shiver. What did she want? A tiny metal can was placed on his table. Her almost black eyes turned to the boy again and spoke. "I need your help…"

Natsuno couldn´t help to laugh sarcastically and banged his fist on the wall, leaving a dent. His eyes turned in a flash dark as the night "Are you freaking kidding me?!" The scared girl backed away but unexpectedly shouted back. "Let me finish my sentence! It´s not like I want to ask for help as a volunteer. I have no choice. I must help him" Her voice sank and continued after finally getting the attention of the boy "I sent Tatsumi to you but as expected he didn´t tell you."

The conversation was quite awkward. Normally, someone would kill her because of `murdering` the villager however the boy just wanted his peace in mind and massaged his poles. Natsuno didn´t want to have a talk or listen any of her words. It was her fault in first place. It was her idea that she wanted to make a village out of undead. She was fault that his friend ended being an okiagari. Why were always the bad guys showing up? But he forced himself. He had nothing better to do. "So what should he tell me?" Sunako fumbled with her hands and began to talk from the start. "There is a certain servant who you might already hear about, unless the fact he became a servant"

The leader self felt strange in this moment, going this far to help someone´s condition in visiting a former enemy "Get to the point" "I´m leading a grand firm which also haves a post office branch named YPIAS" The boy remembered the truck near the school. Tatsumi was watching the driver. So it was a hint, the jinrou came to conclusion and tried to image how the fragile girl was managing paperwork. "He is working in a specific quarter. If you might be interested, I will give you the address." The violet-haired okiagari ended up staring at her blankly, was this some kind of joke? The situation was in first place strange, now it only became worse. Visiting his place like nothing and babbled shit about helping, if it were a trap, things would make more sense.

"My questions: Why don´t you mention his name? What reason do you have to make something stupid and why should I trust you?" A small smile formed her lips, her eyes showed pity. "Because it seemed right for me." Her eyes went to the floor" I made a promise never to tell but I don´t want to see these soulless eyes anymore. Why did the smile of the Shiki vanish completely? There is no need to take someone´s life because a single bite never kills a human. Satoba incident was over and still the smile didn´t return. Wasn´t there an adage which said leave the past behind and look forward to live. Unlike me who want to live, he wants to die. This life is sad however Muroi-san taught me that death is never a real solution. I want to show him that, too. That life can be sometimes good and enjoyable if you have a dear person beside you. Tatsumi, Muroi-san and the servant are dear to me and it makes me feel happy. I feel more happiness if my dear persons feel happiness, too. But the servant isn´t happy. I can´t make him happy. He´s like a marionette, numb and soulless. Always trying to kill itself", a sob escaped, and her hands moved to her tiny ears like she remembered some horrible sounds "Always stabbing his heart, he doesn´t die. Cutting his head, he doesn´t die. Burning in the sun, he doesn´t die."

She made suddenly a pause and looked at Natsuno with her shocked eyes. "Did you ever saw a Shiki burned to death?" Slowly, the boy shook his head, feeling the chills running down to his spin. The girl became creepy. "Me neither. Tatsumi killed them before they get too noisy. The servant didn´t scream, and did you know what? He stopped burning. His skin returned… but, but, but wasn´t it painful, aren´t the things he does to himself painful? When I look at him, it seemed more that I got stabbed. How the stakes pierced my whole body. I can´t bring him happiness, I finally realized that and that´s why I want you to turn him back. You´re the only one who could do this and… who knows what will happen after an encounter" With these words she quickly jumped out of the window, leaving the frozen boy behind. She didn´t even give him the address, Natsuno noticed.

He went to his wooden table, opened the little can and found many red pills and a description. It showed how to use it and where the pills could be ordered, there even was a phone number, however it didn´t show what the pills were. The firm called SPAN. Weird name, but the boy didn´t really care about. First he wasn´t thinking about helping the Shiki however her long talk had an effect on him, he became interested, he would finally find the person who brought him back. But a Shiki that can´t die seemed suspicious. Was there some kind of trick or was this immortality?

**First of all, I know that a Shiki needs to hide from the sun and dies from getting his head cut or gets staked. But I have reasons… Nobody ever saw a Shiki burned to death and the incident with the head… you only need to think about Megumi. So about the following, there won´t be cruel torture… I think. Thank you for reading my crappy writing!**


	3. Chapter 3

Slowly her lids opened, seeing the light of the glass decorated chandelier. The light literally danced with the gems, conjuring a small smile on the white porcelain face. Even if the light was no match with the real sun, it made Sunako happy just being able to see any light. This was one thing which nobody could take from a Shiki away. But this wasn´t her only reason to smile, past the few days she received a call from her servant Tatsumi. He said he would come home as soon as he could after searching for some survivors. The jinrou really knew how to make the leader excited like a little girl waiting for a present.

She rose her bottom from the expensive wooden chair and went out from the chamber. The sun was still shining. Sunako knew that, she always woke up in the same time, when it was afternoon. However in a time like this, there weren´t any problems, if a Shiki went with an umbrella outside. Taking her favorite dotted umbrella from the stand, she stepped down the marble stairs, seeing the junior monk watering the flowers. "Good afternoon, Mr. Muroi" the girl greeted, making the man flinch. She chuckled. "Did I surprise you?" The glasses wearing jinrou smiled a little. "Yes, I didn´t notice you. I was in thoughts"

"In thoughts, about your book?" The younger okiagari shook his head. " I was thinking about the survivors. They´re definitely drowned in fear if they arrive. The whole massacre was just horrible, to think that killing the Shiki will..." the monk didn´t talk further, he knew where the talk would end and turned his head to the vase. "Any phone calls from Tatsumi?" Sunako shook her head. "No..."

Finally someone hooted in front of the fairy-tale like mansion, making the two okiagari rise their head. "Tatsumi!" the leader shouted and ran (which almost seemed to be storming) to the door. Of course, having her umbrella with her, she went outside, looking at a big red truck. Mr. Muroi followed her a few minutes later, staring like Sunako at the truck.

The light-blue-haired jinrou jumped out of the driver seat and watched silently his leader. Then he grinned. "It´s good that you are safe, Sunako-san" The girl nodded contently and detected another person getting out from the six-wheeler. Mysteriously, the person seemed to be fine under the sun and she took a few steps toward the Shiki, forgetting the fact that this okiagari had no sun protection. "So you survived" She clapped happily her hands together, still being careful enough so that the sun rays didn´t meet her skin. However she got no reaction from the younger Shiki, he simply gave her an empty look. Sunako sank her head, catching sight of a big scar on the chest which could be easily seen through the many holes of the blood stained pullover. How cruel... how many times did they stake him?, the black-haired girl thought in shock and turned her head to Tatsumi. "How many actually survived?"

The muscular man scratched the back of his head. "I searched through the whole city. Only three survived, if you wouldn´t count me in. He and another Shiki came with me." and pointed his finger at the okiagari who was standing in front of the leader. Sunako could have expected that the surviving rate would be that low, still it was frustrating and went inside to not let any risk in burning under the sun. Her black eyes were still fixed at the non-talking Shiki who didn´t have any problems with the sun. "Tatsumi, when night comes, will you get the other Shiki" "Yes" and the jinrou opened the door for her.

Like Sunako who was asking herself about the weird proprieties of the Shiki, Mr. Muroi felt pity just by looking at the in shredded clothed Shiki. There were no true life sign in him. Did guilt already devour him? The gray-haired man didn´t know. He could only imagine how far the expression changed from the last time he saw it.

The three okiagari sat on the long red couch, while the junior monk was making tea. "I have many questions, Tatsumi" "I know" "And I want to know about the change of him." pointing her colored nail at the sun-resistance Shiki "Are you able to explain it?" The loyal jinrou nodded. "I can but..." "Then would you mind if you share your memories?" "Of course not!" A talk which was leaded by the leader was always pressuring to him, even if he served Sunako a long time. It gave him constantly shivers when they were talking. Sunako was somebody bigger; she had a stronger will, without her he had no reason to live in this world, that was the jinrou remembering himself, always when he was talking with her. Tatsumi rolled up his sleeves and offered the girl his wrist. "I can´t hide anything from you"

As the girl sank her fangs at the others arm, Mr. Muroi came back, rolling the wagon where the European tea cups and the well formed can were placed. For the younger jinrou, it wasn´t new that a Shiki could feed on a jinrou, also about the fact that they were able to read the memories of the other. Nevertheless he was curious about the information which the girl would get and placed the tea. It shouldn´t take much time...Before the jinrou could end his thought, a scream echoed through the windowless hall. Abruptly, Sunako tore her fangs and covered, quivering her mouth. Disgust, pain, fear reflected her eyes and threw almost up her entire contains from her stomach next to couch. "Sunako!" The two jinrou immediately bowed to her, and the younger one rubbed her back. The other Shiki on the coach didn´t move. "What´s wrong?" Mr. Muroi asked in a worried tone and got no answers from the coughing leader. Sunako just watched the expressionless Shiki with teary eyes and suddenly stood up.

"Show me your neck" the girl demanded in a harsh tone. Without hesitation the okiagari pulled on his collar, showing a scar on his neck which seemed to look like that his head got once cut off. "It wasn´t on purpose" Tatsumi calmly said all of sudden. The girl glanced at her servant, showing him she wasn´t angry, more or less she was shocked. Holding her forehead in pain, she sat on the coach again and let her serve the tea. The blue-haired jinrou felt guilty enough to clean the mess what his little master made and went to get a mob.

"Sunako, are you alright?" the monk asked her again. However the girl just shook her head and left the hall for cleaning herself. Mr. Muroi was clueless and looked at the Shiki who still hasn´t talked. His eyes were staring blankly at the floor and finally beheld the tensed author. He rose his head to make him sit up straight, revealing that he didn´t want to be respect less. The jinrou was setting his glasses right. Would he finally talk? "...How do you feel?" Other beginning to start a conversation weren´t brought to Mr. Muroi´s mind. Expected the Shiki didn´t talk and began to stare at the monk.

"There is no use to talk." Tatsumi came back with a mob in his hand. "I´ll tell you what Sunako saw after I have cleaned this" As the floor was nearly clean Tatsumi began to tell what happened in the village:

With a bit struggle the head of the jinrou popped out of the blanket. The scent of burned body lingered in the air. However the smells of these villagers were gone, so that meant the jinrou could walk around without hiding. Tatsumi tried to free himself of this blanket, even if he wasn´t pinioned by it. His body felt damn weak, because his whole body was in the middle of regeneration. The half of his face, his left hand were hurting, it was burned to black which made the skin hard to cover it.

Only slowly, the jinrou stood up and leaned against the wall which gave him shadow. The man was tired, his body felt numb and nothing from his energy was left. Well, the situation couldn´t be worse. With wobbly legs, he moved forward out of the shadow but still having the wall as a strut. He gritted his teeth. How was Sunako? Was she able to escape? Tatsumi could only hope and caught sight of many dead bodies on the rain wet soil. They weren´t covered with blankets like he was once. Nevertheless their skin weren´t damaged by the sun (beside the fire burns) which showed these Shikis were already dead before the sun went up. The blue-haired jinrou sighed and looked around. Nothing more than a pile of dead bodies that were handed over the sun. His eyebrow rose. When the Shikis were suffering under the sun, they were killed before they passed out of the pain. " Amateur" it came out of Tatsumi´s mouth and detected a drag mark on the mud. A grin formed the sadist´s lips and began to follow the trace.

He almost forgot that it used to be more people on the ground because some of the Shiki´s scents were already blurred but he still had them in mind. The smell of fresh burned flesh was over overlaying it. There was someone alive! Tatsumi came to conclusion and tried to find the okiagari as soon as possible. But the man suddenly stopped, what happened, if he found that brat. He shook the thought away, it didn´t concern him, he would only kill him if he saw him and continued his search.

However he was already standing at the end of the fresh hint. A dead end? No, the trace ended in front of a bulge which seemed to be a grave for him. To his luck, he found other bulges on the ground and finally detected the Shiki where the burned scent came from. It wasn´t Natsuno who he was expecting in first place however Tatsumi wasn´t able to identify the Shiki. From the body structure he could tell, it was male but his clothes weren´t telling him anything. They were covered in mud and were black from the fire, also this thing that the jinrou was a few feet away didn´t even have a skin.

Was he dead? Akwardly, Tatsumi was asking himself even though he saw the worse condition of the Shiki. Wasn´t it already clear? There was a stake piercing the center of the bagged Shiki. He was dead, would Tatsumi normally say, but something was telling him, he was totally wrong. If that thing was dead, how did he burn under the sun with a stake in the center and actually what happened when somebody was completely burned. Carefully, the man neared the skinless Shiki; he noticed that the corpse moved his finger when the jinrou found him.

It was morning, the sun was shining, in time like this, Shikis should be in their dead sleep and scream in pain if they met the sun rays. But the Shiki didn´t burn anymore, he had no skin. His head was on the floor and his arms were laying beside his legs, it almost looked like the Shiki was praying. What a lonely sight, Tatsumi thought and poked the Shiki with a stick which he randomly picked up on his way here. He got no reaction, the Shiki didn´t move. Still, Tatsumi was aware that the okiagari was somehow alive, his intuition told him this, and Tatsumi could always trust his stomach. The stomach was always right! He only needed to get a reaction of the not moving Shiki. If he simply dragged the okiagari with him without any proof that he was alive, he would only upset Sunako with the horrible sight. The man had to do something. But what? He didn´t even know who the person exactly was.

His head suddenly rose. It wasn´t impossible that the brat was somewhere hiding. The grin grew, now everything made sense. He finally finished the puzzle. Tatsumi tried to find the scent of the other younger jinrou and immediately followed it like a dog would do. His speculation was right, there was another person wrapped in the blanket not far away. The smell of the cheeky kid came richly out of it. He was in there and these dead playing Shiki pulled him and Tatsumi (oresame) out of the pit. A Shiki was able to full fill such a stunt, even if it happened very rarely. Nevertheless it didn´t interest Tatsumi anymore and grabbed a shovel which he could find on the ground. Somebody must have left it after the fire broke into the village. The man kicked on the cloth cocoon, seeing the unhurt face of the sleeping teenager in there. "What a lucky kid..." the yellow-eyed jinrou said. He couldn´t let the boy get away, this time he wouldn´t repeat his mistake and swung the shovel like a bat. It was good enough to part the head of somebody and he turned his gaze towards the jinrou again.

Tatsumi wound up ready to hit, he swung and... didn´t hit his target. He fell, touching the soil with his arm. A cold hand grabbed the jaw of the twenty year old man and smacked him on the mud, giving him a bloody nose. The jinrou didn´t know what exactly happened, he just stared back at the red pupils which had the intention to kill him. His limps were numb; he was too weak to fight. Only his hand was unconsciously pushing against the face of the attacker. It was the Shiki from before. The man struggled with no success. He felt the fangs which were thrusting in his hand clumsily. "Shit..." If this would go on, he might really die. He needed to do something. While trying to get the skinless corpse from him, he grabbed with his free hand the shovel. The Shiki didn´t care about the other man´s movements and began to grip on the other´s neck, he grunted.

The older okiagari furrowed his eyebrows, finally identifying the person by his voice. It was him! But Tatsumi already swung the tool, making a cracking noise as he hit the neck. The body fell down like a wet sand sack and turned into a twitching-state. Tatsumi looked at the parted head which was still biting him. The light in the Shiki´s eyes weren´t vanished. It was still alive. However the okiagari wasn´t a threat anymore. The jinrou grabbed the head which was only out of muscles and bones and stared at the tired Shiki. The undead blinked, opened his mouth like he was trying to speak and then closed his eyes. Was he sleeping or was he now dead? Tatsumi tried to figure it out but before he could end it, another problem was awaiting him.

The body of the Shiki began to budge. It stood up and moved his hand as he wanted to find something. Was he searching for his head? The man looked at the head and turned his gaze to the body again. However it touched the wooden stake on his chest and suddenly hammered on it. After this he pulled it out and then pushed in the open flesh wound again. Again and again. The Shiki repeated the actions several times until the Tatsumi took the stake from him. There was no single word the man could say, he knew only that it was suicide which the thing was trying to do. He smashed the stake with his bare hands and slumped on the mud. He threw the head in front of the Shiki´s feet.

Tatsumi breathed heavily, he had no choice to ask " Instead of stabbing yourself, would you help me to find something to eat. I promise that I won´t kill this brat. I just want to return to Sunako and if possible with survivors of our kinds." The man felt his pride shattered in tiny pieces. There were times he used sneaky tricks to get what he wanted. Well he used it always… But it still hurt to be weak and depend on other.

The Shiki glanced quietly on the other man´s miserable state and placed the head on his neck, making it grew together in an extraordinaire tempo; as if needles with strings were stitching his neck; he then silently nodded. Skin began to appear on the flesh; however it healed very slowly, giving the jinrou a surprise that he actually accepted to help him. The okiagari disappeared from the sight of the yellow-eyed man and returned after nearly three hours. He had a bag in his hand where blood was dropping out. From the smell Tatsumi could tell that it was the scent of animal blood. He growled, remembering the bad taste but it was better than nothing. The Shiki threw the bag on the thighs of the starving jinrou and took the shovel to dig more graves for the fallen villagers.

Tatsumi gradually bit in the raw flesh of the hunted rabbit, sucking the little creature dry. The taste was horrible but at least he restored his energy. He threw a glance to the quite okiagari, he was completely healed, from head to toe. Only the scars from the stake and the shovel didn´t disappeared...

"So he did this to himself. Now I can understand Sunako´s reaction. It sure was a horrible..." Mr. Muroi said, trying not to look too worried and turned his gaze towards the Shiki who stared at the place where Sunako was standing earlier. "Shiki can survive without a head as long they don´t starve, right?" Tatsumi nodded. "But without head, Shikis can´t accept the blood no matter what. If you pierce a needle in the vein, it will immediately stop the blood in flowing through it, so we can´t make a so called `blood-transfusion` "

The gray-haired jinrou pushed his glasses right and got up from the couch to look after Sunako however she came back before the monk could knock on the door of the bathroom. "It doesn´t matter what kind of miracle happened, at least he escaped from the massacre" The small Shiki spoke and walked towards the daydreaming Shiki, so she stood in front of him. She smiled at him. "We´ve survived the horror and we want to live the peaceful" Her eyes were fixed on the other okiagari, her smile disappeared "You´ve lost friends, you can´t visit your family, you need blood to survive... Do you hate me?" Tatsumi took instinctively a step forward for the case if the Shiki would attack her however Sunako rose her hand to him to make him stop.

The girl was nervous and stared at the silent Shiki. "Do you hate me, Tohru-san?" The Shiki whose name was finally told simply sat there, not understanding the other undeads, then he eventually said something. "Who?" Tatsumi turned his face to the wall like he knew it would happen. Surprised, the girl tried to repeat her answer with more explanation. "Do you hate me that I´ve turned you into an okiagari, Tohru-san?" The blond moved his head a bit and pointed at himself. "Me? You´re talking to me? Therefore my name is Tohru, is it?"

Silent filled the room. The leader looked at Tatsumi for an explanation, even Muroi-san did the same, and pierced the innocent playing jinrou with their gazes. Tatsumi scratched the back of his head, ordered the confused teenager to go upstairs and suddenly grinned. " He was like that from the beginning. But he does know that he is a Shiki and was serving with other Shikis Sunako. Then this means he knows that he killed people" The two stared at the jinrou with disbelief but didn´t say anything. The black-haired eternal child leaned her chin on her fragile hand, she was thinking. "Should we tell him everything? But I´m afraid that it will turn out bad. Yuki-san is also alive. Would he return to him?" The black eyes went to the two jinrous, Tatsumi didn´t seem to care and Muroi just shook his head. " It is a psychologic problem, we shouldn´t do something. It could damage him" The girl agreed with the junior monk in the end. She didn´t want to see an okiagari who lost his sanity.

**Well the flashback ended suddenly because I didn´t want to write further. I´m bad at explanation and I think everything shouldn´t be revealed at once. In my opinion it is more interesting. (even if I don´t know whether the story is interesting) Please review to know what you think and about the sudden miracle (I have an explanation for that too). Is it too corny or neat? (I just like making drama) Thank you for reading so far!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N : Actually it was finished a long time ago…I only didn´t realize that**

Something was missing, something … But what? Tatsumi was quite sure that he forgot something, but he didn´t know what. Drowned in his thought, he walked restlessly around his room with no success in remembering. Did master Sunako give him an important duty or did Mr. Muroi ask him to water the flower for some reason? No, he watered them in the morning. Then Master Sunako… It was frustrating when he wasn´t able to recall memories, he growled and left his room, walking through the almost endless looking corridor. The mansion seemed to be bigger than in his memories, Tatsumi realized as he began to count the rooms on his left side. He already was here before the Kirishiki moved to the little village, _it was just a mansion from many_, he sighed.

After a few minutes he finally reached the staircase, bumping into the junior monk who finished walking the stairs. The grey-haired man startled at the sudden sight of the man and then his expression quickly changed to his usual unreadable demeanor, he somehow felt assured when he realized that Tatsumi wanted to go the stairs down.

The monk smiled a little.

"Hello…", and stood still, awaiting that the muscular man would go the living room where Sunako was enjoying her evening tea. Tatsumi was clueless and began to stare at the smaller man, he scratched his head. _There was something in the glassed man´s mind, like he wanted to say something. _

Mr. Muroi rose questioning his eyebrow and began to make a worried mien.

"Mr. Tatsumi, didn´t you want to go outside?"

"Outside?", Tatsumi repeated, starting not to get the situation. Outside? What did he want to outside? The man with glasses sighed, putting his finger on his forehead, while shaking his head. It clearly said to the blue-haired that the conversation between the two was quite hopeless.

"Mr. Tatsumi, what about the other Shiki you have brought here?"

Like being strucked by a lighting, Tatsumi remembered his forgotten duty. He had another Shiki in the truck and Master Sunako gave him the order to get the other Shiki when the sun disappeared from the sky. Ashamed, he tried to look cheerful, but failed this time. _How could he forget an order? Was he right in mind or did the blood loss from the fight took effect?_

With the head hanging, Tatsumi entered the hall where his master was sitting on her favorite big chair while drinking from a typical Japanese cup. She didn´t say anything and kept following her servant with her big black eyes. Only bearable, the man could hear the little chuckle from the little girl. She was defiantly pleased of the hectic expression of the blue-haired jinrou and grinned slyly as the man was looking at his master for one more time before he was going outside to the front lawn. S_he really enjoyed the moment_.

The air was fresh and the irritating smell from blood stuck in his nose, it was his own blood. He needed to wash the driver seat or even change it when he wanted to erase the smell, he bared his teeth. He was acquainted with blood, but to reek his own made him angry.

Grumpily, he walked around the truck, to the trailer´s door. However he suddenly stopped and raised his head. A sound? The man turned to the trailer to point out where he heard the ripping sound. It was inside the trailer. Then he heard a light banging in the trailer. It was very weak and almost sounded like something was scratching the wall of the metal box. _The person was awake._ An evil grin crossed his lips and he began to fantasize how to bully the thing (that actually was a Shiki) in the trailer. _Should he make him scream by scaring him or maybe_… Tatsumi didn´t end his thought and commenced to speak loud.

"Aah, I wonder why I went outsiiide ̴?"

For him, it was just a little game to relieve his anger and also a good technique to fool an idiot. The banging became louder; nonetheless the man continued his little game and chuckled.

"What´s this sound? Where does it come from?"

Now, the man was able to register a shout in the box. The Shiki hit the wall frequently.

"I´m in here! Please open the door. I´m begging you, Mr. Taaatsuumiii!"

The Shiki cried in despair. The jinrou couldn´t hold his laughter, at least he was able to bully one person and finally opened the door of the wagon. Immediately the brown-haired jumped out of the trailer, falling with his face on the ground. Tatsumi laughed, grabbing the thin boy on his t-shirt to make him stay on his feet.

" It´s good to see you lively, Masao-kun. You´re really special that you were able to survive." The man grinned, looking down to the weaker teenager.

But Masao didn´t let himself being pleased by the word special like he did back then where he realized that he was an undead and braced himself physically.

"THAT WASN´T FUNNY!" ,Masao shouted at him and sobbed. " I really have thought that I´m going to die…"

The jinrou rolled annoyed his eyes, not feeling any sympathy for him and hit him blithely on his back. "Okay, enough with lamenting around…."

A stabbing feeling which was slowly turning to a warm sensation spread through the back of the older man. Tatsumi became quiet, making the younger one nervous.

"What`s wrong? Did you hear something?"

Masao was afraid, but was ignored by the servant. Sensing the pain again, the man suddenly took a distance from the other Shiki and began to search for the eyes of the person who was giving the man cold chills by just staring intensely at his back. Tatsumi could guess already who it was because it didn`t feel unknown. The jinrou turned to one of the mansion`s window to another.

The last thing he could stand was being watched, he didn`t like to give someone else the upper hand and especially to give the upper hand to an useless Shiki. Still not finding the watching shadow, the Shiki next to him became more uneasy.

" Is this another thing to make me afraid. I..I..I wonnn`t .. .t fall for this!"

"Shut up you twerp!"

Masao jumped back by the response and looked sulked at the ground.

Tatsumi finally found the person. (The Shiki was even nice enough to help him); he tapped the window glass from the second floor and waved. Tohru smiled hollowly down to his superior. The blue-haired sighed in relief, _he just was curious and didn`t want to kill himself, even if he didn`t care about it_. _But it would be bad for his master. _

Scratching his head, he looked at the scared Shiki who his holding his head frighten.

"Move you damn butt inside the mansion. But if you want to starve, you can wait outside. It´s not like I have anything against your decision"

Having no argument toward the older man, Masao became speechless and silently followed his superior inside.

The chandelier glared in the boys eyes; so much that he needed to squint and finally detected the boss of all the Shiki, Sunako. She had finished her tea for few minutes ago; her attention was fixed on Mr. Muroi´s newest novel in this moment. The table was set as it was in the past when she awaited a `little talk` like the incident in the village never happened.

As the sound of shutting the door came to her ears, she raised her head to look at the entrance. A smile graced her face at the sight of another comrade, however the teenager didn´t think the same, he sighed sadly and sat down to the girl when she told him so.

"Good evening Masao-kun, I think it´s the first that we have met"

The boy nodded in response, he only heard the others talking about her that she was a little girl whose name was Sunako. The great feared leader who even had Tatsumi greatest respect, it was a mystery for the boy how a fragile girl like Sunako was able to make such people go under her control. That was really enigma. Maybe she had some kind of super power; the boy thought and placed his hands on his lap.

"Masao-kun, I know that the incident in the village was quite disturbing…", Sunako said in trying to open a conversation. However it had a rather bad influence on the teenager. Masao became angry.

"Quite…Quite disturbing…Are you kidding!? That was a massacre! People who were in the same family were killing each other! I was only able to survive because my sister in law slipped while she was trying to stake me!"

"So she lost conscious and you hide yourself in the house"

Tatsumi sniggered at the memory where he found him in the drawer.

"You really are good at hiding or maybe she just forgot that you exist"

Not feeling attacked by the words, Masao fell silent and fixed his attention on the black-haired girl. The man earned a mad glare from the leader and turned to the junior monk. But Mr. Muroi was like Sunako a bit irritated and gave him a disappointed look.

"Yes, yes… I get it. If you need something, I´m upstairs, trying to harass the other person"

Sunako couldn´t tell whether his servant was being joking or was being serious, nerveless she had no intention to stop him. Watching the man climbing stairs, her eyes went to the teenager, finding some other thing than fear in him. Curiosity. She didn´t need to think much what actions made the boy rising his attention.

"There is another Shiki here. You aren´t alone, Masao-kun"

The boy`s eye grew bigger, _was this Megumi. It defiantly must be Megumi! Megumi is super smart_. But then he saw Sunako shaking her head. It was like she read his mind. Disappointed, Masao let his head hanging; neither he did cry nor he was absolutely shocked. The death of the pink-haired girl once occurred through his mind as he was still in the village. _She really should have come with him_. Masao sighed and looked at the girl again. Sunako smiled at him, pushing one of the cup on the table to the boy`s side.

"You want something?"

Masao firstly shook his head but then the nice smell of `food` came to his nose and became stoned. Expected from the reaction of the young teenager, she filled his cup with red liquid. However Masao didn`t touch it. Sunako began to look worried.

"Why the sudden change? Aren`t you hungry?"

The boy gulped, nodding and slowly moved his trembling hand to the cup.

"Are you afraid, again? Don`t worry nobody died. There is no need to kill or turn them into us. A dream stays a dream. We can live without killing"

These words were enough for Masao to move his lips to the rim of the cup; he drank the warm blood which was probably heated by the hot water in the bowl where the pot was placed before. The blood tasted different; it was good and filled his hunger, even though it was just one cup of blood. _Maybe because it was thicker_. With a healthier looking face, he placed the porcelain on the table again.

"Masao do you want know, what we will do next"

By the look of the boy`s face, she could see that he was expecting something horrible again; Sunako shook her head and chuckled.

"We will live among the humans and start a company because we are in public. Then nobody could just come to us and kill us. They will probably even mistake us for somebody else and if you are worrying about how we build everything. We already have the money, the employees and the building. Everything was prepared before we even came to this village"

"What do you mean you had prepared everything? Was your plan some kind of second of plan?!

Sunako flinched at these words and looked at the ground. It did somehow sound like a backup plan when everything came to ruin. But she wasn`t the person who made it_; Seishirou was it. Well he had reasons to doubt the plan. _The girl looked to the brunette up after a few seconds silent.

"A few had their doubts and I just want to live peacefully. We want to live normal. Is that wrong?"

Masao couldn`t speak back, he was an okiagari himself and he did want to live normally.

"So what`s this company? What are you gonna do, if people doubt you?"

"We will make a food retailer and with this we can make research for artificial blood or food. Nobody would really notice this because they see this as simple food or medicine. But if it really comes to a crisis, we can still make them forget"

Sunako ended the conversation with a single delightful smile. Nothing could be opposed against her idea since she gave the superior vibe off_. The plan is perfect so shut up_. Masao sighed, _in the end everything will be the same…only without attacking people._

"So what will I do?"

"Simple, tomorrow you get a new identity and work on the night shift. We have a community, so don`t worry"

"There are more?!"

"Of course… though a few are normal workers. If you have any question, you can ask Tatsumi or Tohru"

The brown-haired boy raised his head. Did she just say Tohru? He is here? The red eyes of the teenager were sparkling.

"Where is he?"

The young looking leader didn´t respond instead she kind of pointed at him. It was obviously that Masao didn`t understand as he was looking at himself. But then he followed the direction, finding something dark, looming over him. The teenager wanted to scream, but as his mouth opened something was punched against it. Of course a fist. Quivering in pain, the boy fell from the sofa and covered his mouth. Sunako stood up from anger.

"Tohru, what are you doing?"

The taller boy didn`t flinch from the raise of her voice and blinked at her. He smiled.

"Greeting!"


	5. Chapter 5

His heart was thumping, pushing painfully against his chest. But it didn´t feel right. This feeling…It was somehow…kind of unknown like something was stuck inside him, manipulating his heart; giving him pain.

_Will he get used to it, to the feeling? When will it end? One day when somebody has a grudge against him?_ Couldn´t he just do it on his own, all alone? He didn´t know. For what reason, was he still living here? Walking around, eating, thinking… For who? For himself?! No… However the answer was obvious. He couldn´t do it. Even if he turned the world upside down, nothing would change, he wouldn´t do it since there were the others and the mystery why he survived. He would regret it if he just died. He couldn´t do it…not yet.

Natsuno tried to move, but couldn´t feel anything at the end of his nerves. Not his fingers, not his toes, as if his body wasn´t listening to him. It wasn´t something new when such a thing happened …or when somebody tied him up.

Why was this feeling that familiar? Caged in something which made his breath short. He did remember that he blew himself up. Could it be that sensation? So hot… it didn´t seem he was sweating. The air was burning. He could feel it. Crackle, crackle… -hear it. However, he still felt numb. There was no pain. There was no light. It was simply put…dark. Why? Was something covering his sight? Or maybe it was just a stupid dream. Again, the boy tried to move, but with no success. It was the same, no feeling, only the tingling alarm in his head which screamed fire.

Somehow, the teenager began to dislike situation. He couldn´t do anything, not even make a picture of his own situation and now his head started buzzing. What was happening? Move! Natsuno tried to struggle. Move dammit! Then, he felt something. A force pushed him from the right, grabbing him, sucking him in. It was cold. It was heavy and the air was suddenly gone. It tried to tear him down and strangle him…The jinrou knew this kind of feeling, almost too good. Water! It was water! Though knowing that, it didn´t change the fact that it will help in his situation. He couldn´t move. The water started to fill his lungs. For the first time, the boy was grateful being dead. Still he needed to move. Move your arm! No progress.

But suddenly a little light made himself visible after some dark cloud swam from his face. It seemed that the cloths moved on his own. Natsuno could see it, a dim light followed by a pair of red points, lonely looking points. Were they eyes? The ones of a Shiki? He couldn´t tell whose, they were only eyes. They looked sad. Nothing more. Or could be it belonged to the water? Then why were these eyes looking pitiful? Was he pitiful? Right now, he couldn´t deny it, he wasn´t able to move, not even glance at himself. But it was still annoying. Stop looking so sad! The eyes kept remaining. Why are staring at me like that? Nothing will change! It began to look away. What now?! The jinrou hadn´t given up to struggle. Move, move your hand! His hand finally budged and the first thing which crossed his mind was reaching out for those eyes.

However the dark world disappeared, as soon when he blinked, as soon as his fingertips touched those eyes, like it shattered in thousand shards which were raining down on him. The light spread, covering the surrounding white. He gasped and coughed when his head left the water. His hand tried to grab the white porcelain, but he slipped and fell back in the water. His thoughts were mixed up, the headache which he had before still stayed. What happened? The water began to vibrate. Hearing a shout from another room, the teenager could feel somebody running towards him.

"NATSUNO!", the terrified voice belonged to his father who didn´t care to break the door as he kicked in the bathroom. The jinrou blinked. He realized that he was sitting in the bathtub and looked wondering up to his mental ill father.

"What?", the boy uttered, eying suspiciously the broom in the hands of his father. Did he hear him scream? Wait, how long was he in the bathtub? Natsuno raised his hand. Weird, the fingers weren´t that much wrinkled. How come, it felt like hours when he was in that dream.

"I heard you splashing around and I became worried."

His son didn´t comment it and turned away.

"As you can see I am fine. Can you leave?"

Mr. Yuki stayed for moment, staring at his son but then he left the bathroom, he said some words before he completely disappeared in another room.

"Don´t just fall asleep and have bad dreams. Especially in bathtubs…Father is worried"

Almost surprised by the message, the boy watched how the door closed. _He knew. _It was kind of embarrassing. However he didn´t mind it, he had better things to do than crawl in a hole and die. Though he couldn´t accomplish it or made any progress in the last days…

The problem laid in the circumstance, he didn´t know where he could search. After looking for the name he saw on the truck or even calling the industry which produced those pills, he found nothing; only that it was a food producing industry with no suspicious records. The name of the chief was unknown, not somebody he could knew. Well it was obvious that the employees wouldn´t respond to the name Sunako and maybe Tatsumi. They defiantly changed their name for safety reason… But because of the lack of description, he ended up talking to the wrong person who had the same first name as Tatsumi. It was weird…For some reason they became friend, still it didn´t help much. As if the shortage of information was struggle enough, the firm had more than one location and it didn´t seem they had a main branch…or they just didn´t put it in their description.

However more than five weeks have already passed and the other side didn´t respond. There were no calls, any suspicious people who were following him, not even the scent of another Shiki. Natsuno shook his head and got out of the bathtub. They were the one who wanted his help. How could he do something if he didn´t know what he need to deal with…A Shiki who has suicidal tendencies and got the ability to walk under the sun? Great and what should he do? He was actually the last person to convince somebody not to kill himself. To be honest, he would even say: jump down and be a coward. Nobody will miss you. It wasn´t for sure that nobody would miss him. But one part of those people would hate them for killing themselves, leaving them behind since the dead had no real worries about what would happen with them after.

The teenager´s eyes were wandering around the living room, detecting his father on the window. Natsuno came closer with clear sounding step so his father wouldn´t run away to get his broom. He really became attached to it…

"What are you looking at?"

The man furrowed his eyebrows.

"Since those kids visited you last time…"

His sentence stopped in the middle, Mr. Yuki started to blabber to himself, looking at the ground. It always irritated the boy when this happened. _Just finish your sentence! You can even get your broom out of the closet if it helps you to speak clearer. _

"Dad…" As the jinrou tried to speak, the man screamed, making both of them jump back. Natsuno bit in shock his tongue. "Uefh!" Angry, he closed his mouth, seeing a few drops of blood on his hand.

"I forgot that I wanted to bake a cake! Sonny, you are bleeding?! I get the band aid!"

The undead only grumbled. Turning his back to him, the father ran upstairs to search for the first aid kit. He could kill him. Right now, he could get a knife from the kitchen and easily stab him or just break his neck…He could do it… How could band aid help his tongue and did he just call him sonny?!

He vigorously kicked the thoughts out of his head and looked out of the window where his father was standing a few seconds ago. Then the teenager became really silent.

There were people who didn´t want to be found and there were those who gave a shit about it. Outside, there was a person who was the second type of these kinds. Natsuno put his purple hair behind the ear. Now the audience was complete, he thought and left the house. He walked over the road to stand in front of the man. The two exchanged glances first and turned to a corner where nobody could look. Though there was no one around.

"Can I help you?", his tone was cold and harsh toward the light tanned man. Why should it not be?

"So the rumors were true…", the other began.

"Rumors? I never knew that Shikis liked to gossip especially with a person like you."

Natsuno couldn´t help to make a remark, usually he would stand there and keep silent. But today he wasn´t in the mood.

"Well I am not blaming you. No, not real rumors…I overheard a little conversation" The man grinned, grinding his cigarette stub with his grey shoes.

"You mean stalking Akira and Kaori to a city in which you defiantly investigated that there were no friends, they knew in the village since you thought I was dead."

"At least I didn´t explode…"

" At least I didn´t use my wife which I don´t have, for experiment use."

The older man frowned.

"Who…"

"A stupid bird chirped to me who knew a slave who knew a person who listened to the boss who heard a friend talking to himself."

"Wha…what? Is it just me or did you change?"

"No, too many stupid people keep popping out of nowhere…So what brings you here, Dr. Ozaki?"

Toshio rubbed his three day old beard and watched the boy from head to toe.

"That is a good question. I haven´t thought about it when I came here"

In this second, the jinrou noticed the dark circles under his eye and the smell of coffee. _He still hasn´t given up…_

"You look like crap. Are you still hunting? Stopped being a doctor?"

The question didn´t really surprise the man and he answered it with a suspicious smile.

"I am Still a doctor. I just happened to see those ´things`. I thought you didn´t want to live?"

"I have my reasons. If you have a problem, why don´t you give a try to kill me? It won´t be simple."

The doctor scoffed at his words as Natsuno would have said something ridiculous.

"You aren´t the bad kind."

Now, the boy was surprised.

"Bad kind? You suddenly see a difference"

"There aren´t many. Until now, I only am interested not to kill two of these undead"

"So the good kinds are the one who have to do with your personal interest. Now, it makes sense…That means you want help from me or maybe information."

Natsuno hit the nail square on the head. The man scratched his head, yawning.

"More or less. They´ve been behaving suspiciously, it won´t take long before they act like they usually do"

It was obvious that the doctor somehow wanted to the same thing in Satoba. He still bore grudges against the Kirishiki. Defiantly, the people who had to with the Shiki hunting didn´t want to hear any word related to undead…After realizing what they actually have done and how they behaved_. They all live in more happy places after we tortured and murdered them…_

"Here is my answer, go home and play doctor. It´s not like they are bugging you right now or dancing at the top of your nose. You can´t do the same thing in the village. Do you know what those people see and what we actually are: You are a crazy psychopath and I am a teenager in puberty for my eternal life."

"I am not stupid"

"No, you are hopeless."

Silence filled the large gap between them. Toshio finally realized that even the boy was looking at him with hatred.

"I hate them because they did whatever they wanted, thinking they were higher…But those fools didn´t calculate the presumption that some people will notice. Making it too obvious. It was frustrating not being able to protect the things that are dear …", he gritted his teeth at the thought when Megumi attacked his friend but his tone stayed calm, "There were so many holes in their plans."

"Are you saying if they were better, you wouldn´t mind it. They died for ´nothing´? Would it sound more southing if the plan worked?"

"No, it sucks to be them, because of their stupidity, more people died. People died unnecessary and the plan was destroyed. I don´t want to be in her situation and I can call myself lucky for not carrying such a big burden…"

"What are you implying to?"

"It makes me hate them more. Destroying another person´s life while not being able to protect their own, pathetic…I might consider fighting back if they did it again. "

Though the jinrou was saying this, the man could feel a shiver run down his spine. The teenager kept glaring at him. He wouldn´t join forces with him, would he?

"However you people piss me off and I have never been on your side nor I am at their side. You two are the same and when I am finished, I get the hell out of this place. I am sick of seeing your faces."

Natsuno turned his back to the older man and went straight back home.

"Come again and you will be the first person I will really kill…"

Blinking, he heard the door shut. From the force…this kid was mad, even if it didn´t show up on the boy´s face. It seemed, he really shouldn´t have come. This was actually the harshest rejection he ever had…after his mother… Toshio pulled a cigarette out of his jeans jacket to process the words of the teenager. However as he searched for a lighter by rummaging through his pocket, somebody lit a fire with his in front of him. The little flame almost danced on his nose. First he thought, the person had coincidently the same lighter but he soon remembered that this Zippo was a self made present by Seishin. Immediately, he backed off and looked to the left side, staring frozen at the muscular man.

"Inconvenient time, we have our shift to watch over, ya know"

Our?! Before the doctor could react, somebody from the right took his cigarette out of his mouth and pushed his finger on the wick, making his finger black.

"Smoking is bad for your health!"

The fire stopped. Tatsumi rolled his eyes when he didn´t see any response on his underling´s face.

The brown-haired man was speechless as he looked at the young man on the right. He wanted to shout but the blond quickly put his hand with his burnt finger on it.

"Would you mind leaving with no struggles since violence is bad?"

Only the older man´s muffled voice came out. His eyes were showing how shocked he was after feeling the strong grip of the ´friendly´ talking Shiki.

"I see, so you were on your way home. Nobody wants to have something broken inside."

The grip didn´t became lose instead it became tighter. Toshio could swear he heard something cracking. He didn´t know whether to be afraid or be angry. But this wasn´t the time to do something stupid and he stared back at the cold, dead eyes.

"Right? We don´t want any unnecessary ´accident´"

The man gave a glance to Tatsumi who had for some reason a proud posture and then he nodded to the taller Shiki. What the hell was happening?

**A.N: Actually I wanted to make Natsuno say: I ´m gonna go to Canada. But I needed to be serious... **


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N: I want to write once in a different perspective. I am sorry if Tohru happens to act too creepy. **

"Should we let him get away", Tatsumi mumbled, rubbing his chin as he watched the human go away. But instead of thinking whether he should stay or run after him, he went with alternative and did what made him most amused, run after the man. It was expected that he didn´t want to stand next to me after doing something inappropriate. Although he acted like that every time. I should be disappointed at him, but I wasn´t.

"Mr. Tatsumi, where are you going? What about your bike?"

My superior stood still, giving me an underrated glance and answered.

"Eh, I am gonna steal the doctors car to make sure he doesn´t try to follow us and you bug the other guy…You can drive a bike, right?"

For somebody who took me to the driving school, you should know…

"I guess…"

"Good", Tatsumi turned again to face in the direction where Dr. Ozaki was walking.

"But!"

"What?!"

"Isn´t it rude?"

"You mean to bug a person who was bugged before. Yeah that´s hella rude! And if you are asking why I know that. It´s because you are a creepier fucker than I am. You can return for today after you did your shift. You know your task. Any question? "

I pointed my finger on him.

"Mr. Tatsumi, the F-word is a bad word"

The other undead defiantly thought about breaking my neck again. Well that was my ulterior intention, but then he realized that he would be like doing me a favor…Somehow it became quite easier to tell whether somebody had bad motives.

"That´s it. I am not talking to you anymore."

"But whyyyy?"

Actually, I didn´t care for his reasons but by Mr. Tatsumi description, he said to me that my former self was a wimpy crying baby, so for this I should not stand out and at least act like him. I watched how the jinrou jogged after the older looking man until I didn´t see them anymore. It was evening and for this day, I shouldn´t visit Natsuno Yuuki since he already was angry. Maybe, I should wait for 24 hours… He wouldn´t leave the house anyway that meant for me I didn´t need to change my location. His father was more or less a dead weight for his leg; He was useless, still something important to him…I think.

The funny part of all the things was that in these last weeks that I didn´t get notice. He caught me once. But after that he never realized, only his father saw me. I smiled at the pale mister who stood in front of his window again and waved. Because of this, I kinda liked this man, useless but in the same time he knew everything. Wouldn´t he do his son a favor if he just told him what he saw? I wondered why it was like that. Could it be that he was protecting his son in staying quiet? It´s not like I would hurt anybody unless they have bad behavior and Natsuno doesn´t seem to want problem. Abruptly, my eyes went to the red bike. I could return ´home´…Nothing would happen, nothing would…Ah the sun is gone. I stared at the dark sky and looked back at the window. The father was gone. I scratched on my neck where the scar was tracing and jumped on the bike. Time to go home!

At first, I always thought that the red motorcycle was important to my superior until I saw him driving with that thing. Master Sunako defiantly didn´t want to hear anymore how many times I told her when he broke it and the damages he caused. As long as nobody found out, he wasn´t complaining. However Mr. Muroi took the decision that when Tatsumi had his shift he should take me with him. They really didn´t do him a favor…At least the cost were lower and the two became satisfied with the result. That was now routine. I should have followed him. But I believed (if I could do that) that Mr. Tatsumi didn´t want to be thrown in the same room where I was standing, so he would behave.

I parked the red machine in the garage to enter the big house from behind since I got the key for the gate. It was silent in the whole hidden mansion. Everybody was minding their own business, especially Masao because he was only able to walk around the dark. I was often wondering, what could happen if I let this boy burn under the sun, completely burned. Would he be able to walk under the sun just like me? Would he still be alive if I stake him or maybe I didn´t stake myself properly and it was luck that I was alive. Well at least I knew a few things.

I walked down the hallway, seeing the devil whom I thought before caring some boxes to the basement. They didn´t look that heavy but for his thin arm, they looked fine. Suddenly, a light stinging sensation drilled my chest. Better, I keep the idea to burn him for myself. He somehow gave the vibe of being a victim…He actually was a victim since Tatsumi couldn´t bully anyone but him_. I sincerely apologize to you, Masao, that wasn´t my intention_. To not leave the other Shiki hanging, I took the half of his boxes. Masao felt touched as I did it.

"Thanks buddy", a big smile appeared on his long face. Though he had Mr. Tatsumi on his neck and the fact that his life was compared to his previous life much worse, he was quite a happy person. _Somebody has the will to live_.

"How is it?"

Masao looked puzzled up to me. He didn´t seem to get the question.

"Working? You did it in the village, too. Is it hard?"

Even the word ´village´ made the younger teenager gulp. The former me would have reacted like that too. Shiki who weren´t even killing died. Would this be called real murderer if you killed an innocent, even if it was a Shiki…For example Ritsuko…My eyes went to the floor. _Why am I alive and she is dead._

The Shiki quickly gathered his thoughts and answered.

"It´s not that bad. Nobody is hunting us…Right now. We don´t need to kill."

I hoped that, too, ´my friend with long face´.

"And I feel like an adult… I am working! The question is if I ever get a girlfriend…"

His eyes went to the side, embarrassed to look at me.

"I heard there are other Shiki. Maybe you will meet one at the work place. I heard that some like to spoil people. Isn´t that something for you?"

Now, Masao became red.

"I ..Impossible! They are defiantly some old hags who look young!"

With curiosity, I watched him go all fuzzy. _You can´t deceive me_. I knew he would give it a shot. It didn´t matter how old they were, he was fully aware of being an unlucky person. But unlike me, he tried to enjoy his life… more less when Tatsumi wasn´t around.

The younger Shiki looked at me with caution, then to the right and to the left. I guessed that his evil superior sensor were on high sensibility. _His words, not mine… okay without the sensor, I couldn´t help it_. He became worried.

"Isn´t Mr. Tatsumi around?"

Seemed that somebody wasn´t informed… and that was actually my job to do it. Good thing I contacted the Master first.

"Oh yeah, you remind me. I forgot to tell you that Mr. Tatsumi is coming late…Maybe after few days… It depends…"

I grabbed my chin for a short moment, squishing my cold cheeks and suddenly let go. No, he will return earlier. He didn´t trust me that much and the possibility doing something in his manner stupid, was for the jinrou very high. What could I possibly do wrong besides killing myself? It didn´t really bother him. Maybe he wished the other´s dead more. Wait, if I died, would Yuuki kill himself? Would that be a reason to wish my death? Would that be good if I died…. Too bad, I couldn´t die.

I watched at my fingers as I closed the truck where the boxes were loaded. It healed before I returned… Masao sighed in relief. Work was finished for him. These were the last boxes, I read from his lips movement and I could clearly see that he was happy. No Tatsumi and he could do anything he want now, well not everything. There wasn´t much to do either. But before he could start talking about his day, worries or whatever he had in mind which I didn´t want to listen, though Tohru would, my back turned to his face. Frankly put, it was exhausting to play along and I wasn´t technically the Tohru, he knew. I wasn´t even sure if I was the real one. The real one wouldn´t do this and if he did, he would use an excuse, an friendly excuse. However there was no excuse which I could use and I didn´t really care about it. In the next morning I might even forget about it. Was this a so called side effect of amnesia? Without saying some last word to Masao who blankly stared at my back, I smiled shortly to him as I left the garden to go to Master Sunako´s room. Hope I can see you still as happy tomorrow.

My mind went blank when I entered her chamber, smelling freshly printed paper. It became a habit to visit her every day, only she could make sure my `condition` didn´t get worse. Until now, she couldn´t get any straight answers from me… Did she order books again?

She was sitting at her small table like always having a book in her hands. It was foreign book, I wasn´t able to tell what was written on the cover and for sure the words weren´t English. Since I didn´t knock at the door, she had a displeased face when her eyes went to me.

"How many times, do I need to tell that you should watch your manners?"

Past the three hours, I burnt my finger in front a person, grabbed his face and wanted to break his arm. You mean that?

"Is it about Tatsumi, don´t worry, he isn´t a fool"

I wasn´t even thinking about it…However if you felt better in telling me this, okay. There was nothing to complain, actually. Then why did I came here? My eyes went to the painted ceiling. Oh, angels circling the sun, kind of ironic. Was this her idea of paradise? Maybe she just wanted to walk under the sun. Should I tell her to bur…No, I should keep it.

"Tohru is everything fine?"

Why, did I look pale? The joke was getting old. I smiled to assure her that I was ´a-okay´. Was she worried about the theory that I had amnesia? The girl exhaled slowly as she realized, me being absent. Did it become a habit to see me like that? _I am not always behaving like this… Or do you prefer pretending and acting? Oh wait, I am already doing it._

"I can´t do anything if you don´t tell me"

About what? How was my day? A cat hissed at me and I burnt my finger, not something which will particularly raise your attention. Oh and another thing, amnesia would be my last problem. My smile stayed.

"Did we once have decent conversation where Both of us talked. Not only me, giving you some rules and orders."

To be accurate, it was good thing to show me some rules. Who know what, I would have done to people without these restriction. You even needed to explain what good and bad was. I did understand a few things though. Smiling, being friendly and patient was good. Hurting in many other terms and killing was bad. Simple and easy to understand. She might have said more things, but I think at that stage I stopped listening. Master would be hurt, if I shared my real thoughts. It was against the rules and a real bad idea. You shouldn´t listen me…I just clashed my own argument.

"You are using the rules as an excuse, right?"

I tilted my head. That surprised me.

"I was right. Okay, then I order you to talk with me. You didn´t forget the first rule"

Sunako was always first…I thought that she would say it. She didn´t really know what to do with me if ever get lost. A smart way to make me obedient. Why does it sound weird?

"Are you sure?"

A sign of repose made her eyebrows distanced themselves. Furrowing the eyebrows isn´t good for the forehead.

"I am. Now talk."

"Doesn´t it make more sense if you ask the question."

The Shiki didn´t need much time to understand the phrase. I could see it; her expression turned darker as she understood in which direction the talk would go.

"Then tell me how you are feeling? Do you remember anything?"

I scoffed at her question. Right to the topic. However I didn´t respond to it. Maybe another time, I would answer. But not today. Why should I talk about something which I couldn´t relate to or feel. It would be complicated if I started to explain. Though Master Sunako could comprehend it since she was able to identify my idea last time. If I did talk, how should I do it?

"Tohru, not again. I am sick of this situation"

You aren´t the only person who is sick of something. But you won´t let me do it.

"I am not giving you any sharp things or the permission to leave alone"

Still, I was alone, walking around with the possibility of jumping in front of the train. Shouldn´t I get a star for not doing it. I have made progress in not using things which could kill me.

"I am proud that you didn´t do anything stupid."

What is your definition of doing anything stupid? I got to know Tatsumi´s definition: Don´t act like a creppy fucker and slaughtering recklessly is dumb. Why couldn´t I escape the feeling that we were having proper conversation.

"You are difficult to read, you knew that?"

_I am!? _But I didn´t want to talk about my feeling. _Everything is empty. Nothing is happening_. How many days, did I need to tell you this? I always said it. My scars are itching and I can´t feel pain. What should I say?

"Do you feel irritated about my behavior?"

Her eyes were telling me that she would continue her interrogation until I would answer properly. Didn´t she once said that she was patient? I guessed, she was fed up with the situation and now was forcing her way in my brain. For your expectation, there wasn´t much to find. It seems I am thinking much, but in real life I am just restraining to act evil in being sarcastic. A way which Tatsumi taught me. I might be a less complicated version of him. He had more complexes thoughts than I did.

After the child looking Shiki grabbed for her cup, I responded, making her flinch.

"Not really"

She glared at me for a second. Her tea almost spilled.

"Sorry"

The sorry was actually for not being sorry.

"It´s fine. At least you answered."

You didn´t give me a real choice. I quickly wanted to return to my room, so I could scratch on my scars. It was itching.

"The scars are itching."

"Which one, right now?"

Would this help your study in objectifying me?

"My chest, it feels empty"

"After you were standing in front of Yuuki´s house?"

Ah, this topic…

"No, at that time I scratched my neck. We were friends, right?"

Sunako made a surprised expression as she heard my calm tone. I might not be the Tohru…

"I have a question then"

Sipping a bit on the liquid, she placed the piece of porcelain on the table and clasped her hands.

"Go on."

"What problem do you think I have?"

It sounded absurd for her since it was clear what problem I had. But I believed, I should stop playing charade with her. Soon or later, she would realize it; I thought…It was better to make sure.

"Isn´t it on the hand. Because you can´t remember, you are acting like this. You feel the guilt, but can´t understand it. I am not sure if you are punishing yourself by staking your body…"

Not letting her continue, I immediately interrupted her and pointed at my face

"What if I said, I wasn´t feeling guilty. Do I even look guilty?"

The master leaned back, thinking.

"No, you don´t look guilty. But…"

Again, I cut her off.

"What if I said, I didn´t have amnesia."

It became suddenly silent between us. The other Shiki was completely clueless and didn´t know how to react. Her hands were braced on the elbow-rest.

"Wait what? Of course, you have. You didn´t remember your name"

The loss of her words was actually funny to watch.

"I am not sure."

"About what? What do you mean actually?"

I wasn´t sure how to answer and looked at my scars on the arm. The other one didn´t have any wounds or any deep traces like the right upper arm. Sometimes, I forgot when I made them. Was it even a good idea to feel pain? Would this help to make me into the person who I used to be? _Sunako wants me to make ´normal´…_

"I… didn´t remember first. Then I did."

The confused look in her eyes started to turn in a hopeless expression. Her plan to help me with my memories, shattered in front of her. I could clearly see it. She looked puzzled at the ground, trying to find another solution. _There need to be something else _as if I was able to hear her thoughts. I should consider her state and stop talking. But I didn´t.

"I couldn´t recognize them as my memory. I didn´t feel any connection and I should feel guilty…I even visited the new house of ´my family´"

Sunako rose shocked her head.

"And then? Did you talk to them? You didn´t do anything to them?"

"No. When I saw them, they were strangers for me."

It made her speechless when I said this. She tried to search for her family and ended up never ever meeting them unlike me who could. The weirdest part was I still didn´t feel sorry.

"Why are saying this?"

I could hear the anger in her voice. She didn´t seem to like my real behavior.

"It´s the truth. I could try to care for them, but wouldn´t be it an act. Even right now, I am behaving according to your plans."

The Shiki leaned back on his chair, sighing. The emotions in her face were fading though the sadness in her eyes remained. She was pitying me… No, she was in pain.

"How is it being in pain?"

"I am sorry…"

"Why are you in pain and I am not? Explain it to me. I lost this memory"

"I am sorry…"

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I don´t know…"

"Then why are you crying?"

**A.N: It was actually interesting to do some research on real psychology diseases and sometimes I got terrifying results … But the most surprising part was that the symptoms of Tohru do exist. If I didn´t find it, I would have used a personality disorder… Well it is kind of a personality disorder… I should stop talking about it. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N: I am using both information, so the manga and the series. Well not much from the manga because it makes some things impossible (for example the death scenes)…**

The lights were moving past him, over and over, letting the wet asphalt reflect the yellow shine. The sun was nowhere seen, not even the stars made themselves visible today. It was a dull night. At least something should distract him from his miserable situation. Just something? It wasn´t like he was asking for the impossible. He had been driving for hours and the lack of sleep from the past days seemed to take effect on his body. His eyes were heavy; He could feel how he wanted to relax his muscles and let the strings which were weakly holding him to sit go lose. He could let his fingers fall from the wheel and his head would hit the motor horn. Then it would make an extreme loud sound even hearing that Toshio would be far away in the slumber land of death. Tatsumi would survive and he would die.

Yeah that will happen the man thought, yawning. He wasn´t even thinking of taking a smoke which was right under his chin, he didn´t need more relaxation and now the coffee was wearing off. It was like destiny was begging for his death like he was an overused character who nobody liked. But the doctor didn´t want to die, not in a miserable way where he didn´t achieve anything. On the top of that he didn´t want to die in front of his ´dear´ guest. It was his fault in first place. He was holding a gun on his head since he forced himself in the car. Whether he died in an accident or by a bullet, the result were the same. For a second their eyes met as the tired man looked at the back mirror noticing the mocking pair of his eyes. He was laughing and didn´t even try to hide it_. Why couldn´t he do anything? Why did it have to be this guy?_ As the man imagined Tohru attacking his car, the teenager would be clumsy and maybe even consider acting careful around him. But that was different. The person, he met before, had the same face, not the same soul. _They think that they are same, but they aren´t_. Natsuno was useful and Seishin might be deceived by those corpses… The car was shaking. Immediately, Toshio tried to focus on the road as he realized that he was drifting from it. _Stay awake! Look at the road! _However the thoughts came back. His eyes were glued on the black asphalt then for another second to Tatsumi. The undead had already pulled his mobile and it didn´t seem that he was enjoying himself. Toshio never thought of doing it but he had no choice to use a conversation as a distraction to his sleepiness.

"What´s wrong? Bored already?"

Tatsumi kept flipping through his phone, ignoring the human. On his waist, Dr. Ozaki could see the gun attached to the belt. _Where the hell did he even get that? Oh wait, his little master is rich and can even build a castle out of nowhere…_ Toshio continued. He was thinking to crash the car and make the jinrou lose his gun. But then Tatsumi put his boots against the seats and began to rub the dirt of his soles. The gun was in a swift second placed on his head again.

"I am bored. So what? Just you know I could break your neck, I don´t need a gun."

The situation was tense. Toshio should have known that, however he needed to forget that he was dealing with Tatsumi. That's what you get for being stupid, the man thought to himself. Still he didn´t want to fall asleep.

"If that´s so. Why do you have one?"

Almost seeing the anger in the blue haired man´s expression, Tatsumi leaned back, sighing. As if he had a hard day and went tired home. _Hey I am tired not you_.

"Tohru is stupid. That´s why."

The doctor didn´t really get what the other man was saying and wasn´t interested to understand the meaning behind of these words. But the thing was, Tohru should be actually dead since he saw his dead body. Natsuno and Tatsumi might be an exception because he didn´t see them. They could have been staked or blown themselves up since he knew the boy´s plan… Maybe it was the same and it wasn´t enough to kill them. They were the other type of the undeads; They weren´t that fragile since it needed more than brute strength to stake them…

"I don´t get it. He should be dead; you should be dead and the boy too. Why?"

"What will you do if you know?"

He was right and that was actually rare for him to be in the same opinion as them. Nothing would happen. Nothing…They were monsters who needed to be killed, nothing more.

"Why is Tohru stupid? At the time he grabbed my hand I could see another you. You were happy when he did that"

Tatsumi growled at the thought.

"He is good in serving Sunako, no complains. But in the same time it is stupid. "

"Because she is…"

Before Toshio could end his insult to Tatsumi, a peeping noise interrupted his words. Then suddenly the jinrou demanded him to stop the car.

"Get out. I am driving" Toshio didn´t understand and hit the break without a second thought, ending almost bumping into the wheel. But somehow managed to get a grip of himself and parked at the side of the road. He could use the chance…

"Don´t even think about it." Hearing a glass shatter in his head, the human became quiet. It was just a thought…Tatsumi grabbed the man out of the car and threw him recklessly, not in the backseats, in the trunk.

"Nice car with a big trunk for a little doctor. Somebody was carrying big things to place A to B"

His wide sadistic grin appeared as he looked down and shut the deck lid. It was the last thing which Toshio would see until it became dark… He could hear the motor roaring. Toshio didn´t know what would happen to him. But fear wasn´t lingering in his body. He was too tired to think and he quickly fell asleep. Not the best way to protects himself from the enemy…

Seishin looked out of the window, watching how the sun slowly rose. Sunako was already in her dead sleep like the other Shiki beside one… His face turned to Tohru who almost lied on the table with his upper body. This boy still refused to drink or ´eat´. He could understand a bit about his behavior from books, but sadly enough it could be something where many possibility came in question. The closest one was for him the depersonalization disorder. He was himself unknown, he lost his touch in living… The author could keep continuing counting down other symptoms but it wouldn´t help to bring him back. Since Sunako started to lose her options of treatment, she began to rely on any methods, even if they were stupid ideas from Tatsumi. Maybe he should do the same as Tatsumi and force him drinking…in punching him in the mouth…No, he could find another way.

"Why aren´t you drinking?", Mr. Muroi said while rolling up his sleeves.

"Why do you have your glasses on though you don´t need them?"

"It´s a habit…" He answered, touching his glasses. "I can take them off if you don´t like it"

"I don´t care and I am not hungry" The blond turned away. He was acting like a sick kid. But since he was dead pale, he couldn´t really tell whether he was sick. He was dead. Even if the former monk slit his arm or brought human blood in this room, Tohru wouldn´t budge. The glass of blood stood on the lamp table untouched for two days. Nothing was working and the biggest problem was that this Shiki became sly. It was written in the book that some try to act normal or social only to be able to isolate themselves later. When Seishin thought he made progress, he would find out later that he was giving the glass to Masao.

"I won´t go"

Tohru stretched his arms and kept sitting on his place.

"Then don´t go"

This situation was problematic. No one dared to try a real move. The former monk didn´t want to use violence and Tohru didn´t want to open up. How could they get out of this?... Beside the fact that Tohru wasn´t willing to help. What is his goal? Seishin sat down at the table next to the half asleep Shiki. Even if the boy didn´t sleep like a Shiki used to do, he still couldn´t decide when he was tired. He and Tatsumi didn´t need it, they can, but it wasn´t necessary.

"Are you asleep?"

"No…"

"Are you tired?"

"Not again…"

The young man rose surprised his eyebrow. Though the Shiki had lost his personality, he seemed to get annoyed at things. There were some emotions, but were they the same? He didn´t know him good enough… Maybe he would be better off at Natsuno´s side; he could see whether he was the same. It could be a treatment. It could help him to turn him back.

"Are you asleep?"

There was no response.

"Tohru?"

Nothing came back. The jinrou stood up to move the younger male to his bed. Then out of nowhere.

"I was…"

"What?", Seishin asked puzzled.

"I was sleeping…" The Shiki couldn´t properly open his eyes and twitched with his finger. It wasn´t just his imagination. Tohru was sick, not only in his mind. If the man could describe him, even if it was vulgar, he would like to say he looked like crap. Seishin neared the person to whether he could deny him or fight back. Obviously, it wasn´t the case and slit his arm for another time. He squished the blood out of his pulse vein, letting it drop on the paler one. Some made it into the mouth….But only some. The grey haired man hadn´t yet heard him swallow which made him worry more. Where was Tatsumi when he was needed? Shouldn´t he be already here. It had been for hours after the last sunrise. The young man rubbed the other´s back gently.

"Tohru? Are you awake?"

The boy didn´t answer anymore. Seishin did a few more to check; the results were the same… Should he move him now? Though it was bad idea in his opinion, he still grabbed the boy, carrying him to the underground basement.

Unexpectedly, the teenager was very light. Might it be the change of his physical strength or did he become skinny… It could be a stupid idea, but the obvious things couldn´t stay hidden. Maybe it is better than doing nothing. The jinrou had mixed feelings. Everything could go wrong. As he walked down the stairs he could hear the foot steps outside. There they come… In the end he somehow managed to come in time. However the man frowned at the smell of the other person. His walking sped up. Better hurry up, so I don´t need to face it. But it was too late. The door swung open and an grumpy man whose bones cracking could be heard clear enough even without sensitive ears stretching his way through the room. The man in jeans was complaining at Tatsumi who simply was ignoring the existence of the other person.

"Hey! Are you listening?!"

The older jinrou rolled his eyes, looked at his fellow of colleague and immediately grinned. The other wasn´t as pleased.

"How are the preparations doing?"

"Finished…",he said, put abruptly his glasses away and turned his back to the two. The best way was to get quickly over and to not lose time though he had his doubts. The boy could wake up in any minute and the junior monk didn´t want to see him when they… For sure, he really didn´t want to see it.

It was a clear sign that Seishin wouldn´t talk to his former friend. His eyes were distant when he moved his gaze toward him like he would look through a window. _So that´s how deep I sank in your ranking_. But it didn´t matter anymore, Toshio could shake this feeling off without making a big deal. What should he expect? Feeling awkward because they used to be childhood friend, him seeing in pain because he wasn´t on his side or just looking worn out… That wouldn´t happen. The two were adults. They had enough time to settle down the out coming of their different decision. It was as it was. Nothing could be changed. Maybe they were even considering killing him afterwards.

Toshio squinted at the sudden light change and noticed the white room he was standing in. Glass cupboards were standing on the wall, filled with suspicious looking chemicals and the strong smell of disinfectant lingered in the air. As if he was in his own hospital…without the chemicals… However the most eye jumping part was the Shiki laying in the middle of room, being surrounded by scalps, hammers and a chainsaw… The man rubbed his shoulder and looked at Tatsumi, feeling the chill down his spin. That clearly wasn´t a good sign.

"Sooo what is my purpose after being dragged and locked in my car for more than five hours?"

Seishin gave the jinrou a disappointed glare, making him only shrug.

"The thing you did last time when you had a Shiki bond on your chair. Inject him with acid, cut him open, poke him with a stick… I don´t know. Something that will help to make some progress."

It was suspicious. Handing him a Shiki on silver platter, was this some sort of joke? On the top of that it was Tohru Mutou. Didn´t they feel something for him? Perhaps Seishin did…It didn´t really matter him. But it was still awkward.

"What if I ´accidently´ kill him?"

"He would say thank you if he could.", Tatsumi scoffed and got an elbow hit at the side of the stomach, "jokes aside, you are the doctor, you have some knowledge which I couldn´t get and you know what I can do."

There was it again. `If you don´t do it, I´ll kill you `, argument. Slowly he became sick of these threats. He didn´t need to be reminded in every ten seconds. He knew that he was in danger. He knew that he was standing in the enemy territory which is defiantly cut off from the outside world. Even his mobile wasn´t working… Wasn´t it a perfect place to dispose a person unknowingly? Ah, he hated his fate.

Toshio stepped forward, grabbing some rubber gloves and glanced at the sleeping corpse. If he hadn´t realized the cause of the deaths in Satoba, he wouldn´t have believed that this thing in front of him was alive. His eyes went for a second to the jinrous but they didn´t seem to be hopeful about whatever they were planning.

"You said you couldn´t get it. Does this mean, you can´t make experiment on your own kind because your good for nothing leader doesn´t allow it. Didn´t you punish some already?"

"I did. But that is a different story. "

Suddenly the doctor grinned. That might be the reason for them to do this.

"You mean that they did something bad like betraying…"

"We know what Tohru did. So can you stop provoking" The voice of the grey haired man was harsh. He was impatient.

"Right, right. So what am I dealing with? What do you know about your corpse friends? It could be helpful if I know more about your 'kind'."

Seishin didn´t like the sound of his former friends sneering, but he kept calm and started to tell him the conditions of the boy.

"Sometimes his skin smokes a bit when he is too long under the sun, however nothing more happens. Maybe you have seen…"

"I did and had the best view. Well I am not an expert but I am not sure if I am able to stop him from suicide."

Tatsumi chuckled.

"There is one more thing you should know. From what Tatsumi told me is that Shikis are failure version of jinrous."

In that case, why is Tatsumi following a failure? This didn´t make any senses. For a person like him…

"Is that all?"

Seishin nodded and sat down on the bench nearby. Did they really trust him that he would help? If so, it was the most stupid idea, they ever had. This Tohru was dangerous and it wouldn´t hurt if one problem was gone from this world. It could be a onetime chance. He hesitated first, but grabbed a knife to cut the person´s shirt open; he didn´t find it necessary to ask whether he could rip of the undead´s clothes.

His eyes weren´t clearly focused on his task since Tatsumi wasn´t standing still and walked aimlessly through the room. The man´s steps were loud and intimidating, making him startle when he gives his attention on the body. He tried his best not to let the others know and tried to proceed with his work. Unlike he saw it once on his wife, the scars weren´t healing or disappearing. One was surrounding the neck, the other was on the chest and the arms… Some were fresh deep scars with dark red crust, nearly as if the boy´s body was human again… But the thought immediately died when he felt no pulse on the boy´s wrist. Though it was silent in this room, he could imagine being laughed at Tatsumi like it would happen in any minute.

The man really had a problem. What was wrong with him? How could he kill him? He needed an idea right now! Placing the scalp on the boy´s chest, he tried to carve the center open. It was difficult as if he was trying to cut stone open and stared at the attrite blade. Something harder than stone would be a better description… He used various methods to test on the body and looked behind to the table for some different equipment instead of looking inside the corpse. The actual reason was for safety and getting proper details.

"Does religious artifacts work on you?"

Seishin looked surprised, almost showing that he wasn´t paying attention and quickly threw a glance to Tatsumi who he just made a bored expression and shook his head. After the wordless answer the man would ask why, but he didn´t. There might be a ridiculous answer about fearing god or simply being a tight minded idiot because they didn´t feel alive and this was a sin. Well they were an eyesore for him and he wanted them dead, so the fear was actually convenient for him. He took a cross out of his pocket and dangled in front of the undead´s face. Nothing happened and the doctor gained weird glances.

"What are you trying to do?"

It was obvious that Seishin would ask since he was worrying about the boy. His hands were strongly gripping each other, making it look like he would stop himself from doing something bad. Being honest with himself, Toshio didn´t want to know what the author actually wanted to do.

"Can they work if the `Shiki` is ´sleeping´?"

Seishin frowned though answering the questions.

"They feel bothered and get uneasy, but it works only when they aren´t in deep slumber."

"Is he in deep slumber?"

A bit of hesitation could be heard in the grey haired man´s voice and denied that the teenager was in his dead sleep. After that answer Toshio put the cross back in his pocket and took a scalp. Then he worked on the chest, being able to cut the skin through. But something white was peaking. Bones. The man quickly turned, only to notice Tatsumi standing behind him. He smiled and pushed a chainsaw in his hand.

"I didn´t leave this here for no reason." However he didn´t put it on the place immediately. The taller man looked like he would get a present in any moment and this made him obnoxious. From Seishin expression he could tell that he didn´t understand why this person was excited.

"Is there something I don´t know?"

"Take a look and you´ll see. I hope it is this."

It was awkward enough that there was a bone in a way… Simply put everything was odd in this situation. Nothing could go wrong now, he hoped and started to serrate the bones while looking at the peaceful sleeping face. For some reason he was asking himself whether Tohru was dreaming or went for a few hours to the dead, just so he could return and hunt people down. Weird, he kept referring him as Tohru.

Blood splattered on his coat and nobody screamed. The skin on the chest was off, reminding somebody of dissecting a frog. But instead seeing the innards through the rips, there was nothing, only deformed rips twisted into each other. Toshio saw two hands, one laying on the other. Big white hands with long bony claws. That wasn´t something he found in his dead wife. He took a hammer, hitting the rips with force merely to bounce back. Should he use the chain saw again? Would this work? The bones he hit before had already grown together. Somewhere needed to be a place to get easier to the center.

Before moving his hand to the exposed bones, Tatsumi pulled him back by grabbing him on the shoulder.

"If I were you, I wouldn´t tease it."

"It?!"

Without any words, Tatsumi cut on the doctor´s hand and let it drop on the open wound. Then in the next second it happened. The rips were moving, tearing from the other match and opened its center. There were no lungs, stomach or any other organ. Only a pulsing black thing surrounded by a dark blue net. It was the heart.

"He hasn´t eaten for weeks. What do you think what would happen if you put your hands in. You would be gone in one second."

Toshio stepped back. However Seishin got closer to the other Shiki, seeing how the jinrou tried to hold the rips apart.

"Does every Shiki have this?"

"With time their unnecessary organs turn into a net. His rips…No. But they are a bit similar to ours. I guess If you keep breaking rips it lose its form one day."

It was confusing. Tatsumi said he couldn´t experiment on his own kind. How could he know that? He didn´t test it on himself, did he? Wait, he tortured…

"Mr. Muroi did you remember when you took an X-ray and saw nothing but white. That´s because of your rips. Our heart is protected by a complicated structure of bones that let us have a stronger body than the Shiki… Hold the other part, I see some shards"

The grey haired man looked inside and grabbed the upper pair of rips. He was puzzled about the plan of the other and felt the heavy responsible of taking care of his underling. Not giving any sign of warnings, Tatsumi quickly pushed his hand inside the stomach as he pulled out. It was dangerous since acid was burning his arm but in the same time the jinrou unintentionally cut the innards. Foam of blood welled out of Tohru´s mouth; He started choking.

"Mr. Tatsumi! What are you doing?!" Seishin couldn´t help to shout, he wanted to back off, he wanted to take the boy away from the table. However Tatsumi didn´t grin or was responding to his words. His eyes were fixed on the shards. It wasn´t an important task since it wouldn´t help the boy that much, the man thought. He knew that the jinrou was actually acting on Sunako´s whims but what could a better regeneration help when the person didn´t take the needed nutrition… Well it would help in the future and it surprised him how negative he was thinking about the situation.

Toshio stood beside, feeling left out. Wasn´t he the doctor? Didn´t they ask him to help? Now what is his role in this play? The one who realized something new and horrible was created? If that was the case, could he go home? Though having these thoughts, the man stayed and watched. Maybe he even noticed something the two didn´t. He blocked his ears in pushing his finger in it, still having his eyes on it.

He was blinking then he looked for a swift second down and closed his eyes. The dark circles under the one´s eyes became darker and a quivering mouth was rounding the expression like he was about to cry. But the doctor knew he wouldn´t. Before the other realized since they were fighting to hold back the rips, it was too late to notice.

A deafening shriek echoed through the room turned out to be laughter. Tatsumi´s right arm became numb while the other jinrou backed off. The time passed very quickly and the adults were standing frozen as silent filled in.

**Actually I wanted to make it dramatic and make Tohru scream in pain as he looks inside in his body. But that would destroy the fact from the last chapter and that would somehow sound dumb. My Explanations are boring but I hope it makes you understand a bit. For some reason it does sound stupid like "It is like that so stop asking question".It is actually natural that bones grow in different way if they don´t have the required aid. One thing for sure Tohru didn´t turn into a jinrou. It only explained the staking part… Thank you for reading and I would like to know your opinion about this chapter. I want to know if it was bad or good. Could it be that my explanation are unreasonable?**


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N: I think when Tohru laughs it sounds like: Nya hahaha(when he laughs at something) or nye hehehe ( the whoopsy daisy laugh or the sheepish laugh) I feel somehow a bit guilty about the Tohru in this story… Just a little bit… Warning: blood… and gore… though I wouldn´t call this it since it isn´t very detailed and you already had read so far and still are reading… I very appreciate that… But just in case, I´ve warned…**

Everything seemed to be out of place. He, the doctor and the leader of the okiagari who was fault in first place that things had ended like that. Natsuno didn´t know how to respond or even act in such a situation. On the top of that he came along without thinking…. That was one of the dumbest thing he had done in his life. But the thing which bothered him the most was: Why the hell was the Dr. Ozaki here?! Did he had some business, he needed to attend? With Sunako? The small girl, the violet-haired jinrou eyed, enjoyed her tea, obviously ignoring the hostile glares of the boy. Didn´t she realize that there were two enemies in this room who were maybe considering killing her? It didn´t matter whether it was her basement and it also seemed the sick looking doctor was in a quite good mood though being around the undeads who he despised. Was he scheming something?

Snickering, the older man looked at Natsuno when the door opened and a rather worried Mr. Muroi entered, not to mention that the former monk brought the teen to this place and left him in this room… He shook his head as he exchanged glances with the Shiki, making her cold expression turn nervous. What was going on? The teen couldn´t tell, he was the only one since everybody else knew. Dr. Ozaki was grinning, Sunako was nervous and Mr. Muroi was for some reason feeling guilty. Why? Something was affecting them and it might be the something which brought him here. More than months had passed after her beg of help and she still didn´t make herself clear what the boy should do. How long did he need to wait? Will they finally get to the point?

Natsuno stood up from the coach, moving to the direction of the door, immediately stopped by the other jinrou. Mr. Muroi didn´t directly look at the teen, not hiding his remorse for some reason.

"Wait a bit longer… Right now isn´t…"

A mocking scoff interrupted the sentence. It came from the doctor who lazily sat back, not being affected by the attention that went to him.

"It´s not like anything would change… like getting an extra limb"

Did he try to make a joke or a pun out of the situation? The boy rolled his eyes. Slowly the situation pissed him off. What was so funny? What happened? Natsuno felt stupid about busying himself with such a trivial thing. Then again the thought that it might be important kicked his grumpy attitude away. The teen continued being lost in thoughts as he returned to his seat and a memory of Tatsumi bothering him flashed in front of his eyes. Usually Tatsumi would pick him up, now the monk did. Was this man too busy or something happened and he 'disappeared'… The jinrou abruptly shook his head; he was reading too much into the situation. Even if his doubt could be correct, it wouldn´t really matter to him, it would even help him. So it wouldn´t hurt if he asked…

"Can I ask what I missed?"

Dr. Ozaki righted himself up to sit normal and yawned.

"A lot"

Adding his answer a carefree laugh he stretched his arms.

"Quite a lot. But you will see it…"

It was as if he ended his quick chat in the perfect moment when another person joined their small assembly; it was none other than the blue-haired sadist, Tatsumi who smacked the door shut aggressively. To the teen´s surprise the older man looked exhausted, though wearing such an angry expression, saying he wanted to do more than just rampage. His burning glare went abruptly to the boy, then he kicked the nearest table away, cursing silently that he couldn´t do anything to Natsuno. Sunako watched, not surprised by the male´s behavior and took her cup off the table for the case that Tatsumi hadn´t enough and would suddenly destroy more things than this one table.

Everything went silent as the others observed the man, asking whether he would explode or blood would burst out of his visible veins. Even, the doctor held back his comments, understanding that something could happen to him if he did a wrong move. The silence broke when the boy detected a lose sleeve of the coat, the man was wearing, letting the few blood splats on his face which in high rate weren´t his, unnoticed. First he thought that Tatsumi wasn´t wearing his clothes properly, but that wasn´t the case. The red coat wasn´t baggy enough to hide the right arm without notice; in this moment it made click. Tatsumi had no right arm and by that realization Natsuno stared in disbelief. What the hell did this man do to lose his right arm…Completely? If he still had it, he could attach it to his body again, right? Did he got run over by a train until his arm was unrecognizable, jump into acid or pool of piranhas…

Before the boy´s wild imagination could take over his brain, something cold hit his face that followed by a satisfied grunt from Tatsumi who leaned against the wall. Weirdly enough, the stingy sensation he received was familiar. It wasn´t like he never got punched… or slapped since it felt more like one. But this was new. He never received a slap by a flying hand…In calm manners, Natsuno observed the pale hand on his lap, wondering who it would belong to. Since it was Tatsumi, he defiantly used an acquaintance… The only problem was that Natsuno was an unsocial teenager who didn´t make the effort to remember one´s face or names…. Especially he wouldn´t remember someone´s hand. But the boy still gave it a go and felt up the muscles in those slender fingers. His first guess was Tatsumi, however he didn´t have scars and the 'nice' defining texture at the open flesh clearly was screaming to him that Tatsumi ripped it off. Why would Tatsumi throw his own hand at him anyway…? Unless he himself would think that it became useless, and used it as a way to harass people… like right now. Natsuno looked up to Sunako who gave the hand a concerned look and then she sighed at Tatsumi. Tatsumi only shrugged and mumbled something similar as, he deserved it. Almost forgetting the existence of the doctor, the boy jumped up at the sound of the man´s scruff voice.

"Well Tatsumi, the boy here is clueless. You don´t mind explaining your new 'look' to him?"

Dr. Ozaki chuckled only to receive a death threat from the jinrou. The tense air disappeared as Natsuno noticed that he would finally get an answer. However it seemed Sunako hesitated unlike Tatsumi.

"You didn´t over do it?"

"I don´t know. I measure the punishment by their stupidity and this one has a lot of it. I even believe I was too kind."

Mr. Muroi shook dejected his head.

"Take the hand with you!"

The amber eyes went to Natsuno then to Sunako. He spoke to his master with a softer voice, "You don´t need to come along", and disappeared with Natsuno behind the door.

While following the taller jinrou´s broad back, the boy wondered if he could kill him, especially how he could do it. However whenever the teen was considering doing it, Tatsumi looked for a second back to stop the boy from further attempt. It would be nearly funny, if Tatsumi didn´t have this suspicious grin plastered on his face. Something made him enjoy this situation and this made the younger jinrou turn his stomach. Every step Natsuno made, added pressure on his shoulder and the instinct in him became stronger, wanting him to leave this place. It was weird. But Natsuno couldn´t help to continue his road. He wanted to know…More like, he needed to know. Those people made enough suspension for his taste and another day would actually make him mad. Tatsumi stopped walking so did Natsuno after he bumped into him because he was still lost in thought. There was a door in front of him and it didn´t took seconds to let the boy know that they were underground of the building. The hallways were weakly lit by candles and no windows were in sight. Not to forget that they went a lot of stairs down… Of course such a place should exist if your leader gets burned by the sunlight… However before he was about to comment about the situation, his mouth immediately shut as the smell of dried blood made contact with his nose. Behind the door, the smell was overflowing… rusty chains, the blood and for some reason burnt flesh…

"Let me tell you what happened"

Tatsumi started to talk while he fumbled with the keys in his chains, probably because he was searching for the one to unlock the old door. His voice still sounded irritated. Well who wouldn´t be angry? Maybe Natsuno wouldn´t… It depended on the situation.

"It was eaten"

"…"

Right now, the boy wasn´t in the mood of taking any jokes, and especially he wasn´t sure, if the man in front of him was serious. But since the man didn´t bother to turn or didn´t wish to see any reactions of him, Natsuno guessed that man was serious, on the top of it, becoming quite pissed off considering the mood he had had. Even if the younger jinrou haven´t done anything…. Yet. Tatsumi continued.

"We were doing some 'research' because he was weird… so we opened him"

A note to the teen himself: When Tatsumi says open somebody, it means its literal meaning, nothing is extravagated… also doing research can be sometimes misleading when you are blue-haired sadist, and since Dr. Ozaki was here, he defiantly took part in the session… Natsuno shivered. Those two doing 'research'… What was Mr. Muroi doing all this time?! CLACK! The lock of the dusty door hit the stony ground and the keys kept rattling.

"Master Sunako wished improvements, even if it just the body, so it got eaten"

That´s it? The teen would say as the story didn´t really come to the point why it got eaten… However he kept it. It didn´t really matter and would only confuse him.

Creak…

Only slowly the wings of the door opened. Maybe because it was heavy or maybe because Tatsumi only had one arm and had trouble to keep both open… If you could call simply pushing one door, troubling….

"Need a hand?"

Natsuno couldn´t believe he just said that. It slipped, it suddenly slipped out of his mouth when he waved the hand under the other´s breath. Before the ship was ready to sail deep in his mind for an thorough explanation from his brain, it got shot and sunk, when he heard a familiar laugh echoing from the inside of the room.

"Nya hahaha good one…" The laugh instantly died, followed by violent coughing. A sudden dark feeling started to cloud the teen´s mind. The voice was familiar yet strange. It was distant. To join Tatsumi, Natsuno went in after hesitating, just to be revealed by a sight of horror which you mostly could find in gory movies… where the rich psychopath has a hidden classic torture chamber in his basement. Old chains attached to the wall were hanging loose on the floor and brown red marks betrayed the once position of victims which were probably dead by now. Two…No one chain, as this person didn´t have a hand anymore, was occupied by one male covered in blood, the hair color unrecognizable and unable to forget the sight, the person was drilled by pipes which were attached with cables that connected to a suspicious looking box. Since this person was able to laugh, it was no way a human… However what was horror chamber without their exotic looking tools of doom on a table. They were cleaned, though the room was a whole mess, and ready to use. Natsuno wasn´t sure if he should say something while he stared at the drain right next to the seemingly broken leg of the male, which was now collecting his blood.

Despite the fact that the Shiki on the floor was in a horrible state, he still seemed to be in a quite amused, (as he was smiling) mood. Whether he was struck too hard on the head and lost his ability to feel pain or simply was insane, one thing for sure one of his theories or related to it was the explanations of his behavior. However Natsuno was in no position to judge; he already met too many weirdos for his short life as a human.

"Take a better look and tell me what you thing."

It was weird, even if the teen shouldn´t be surprised. Things popped up out of nowhere and he could never comprehend it in first place which happened lately a bit too often… Why? Because of certain girl who always needed excuses to extend the problems. Tatsumi spoke to the other okiagari, surprisingly helping the person getting the pipes out of his body. The detached hand was by now taken as the older jinrou simply threw the Shiki´s hand to him to catch it. Another laugh would escape the Shiki´s mouth if he didn´t choke on his, own blood. Somehow the teen got ignored when the two started a conversation. He used the chance to have a closer look on the person standing in front of him, slowly…only slowly to recognize some features on the one´s face and build. His brain didn´t function as the boy wanted to, the information for some reason unable to process. Something rang in his ears and flooded his mind. Headache. Suddenly, his head ached…And it reminded him of the strange dream he had… Natsuno didn´t understand. Of course how could he? The conversation kept going and he stayed quiet.

"Nothing, really?"

Tatsumi said surprised with a hint of a mocking tone. Were they still at the same topic? Or did it change? Natsuno didn´t know, he was too absent to think straight in this moment. How could this possibly be? Well he survived…

"yes, nothing"

The person with the same face of his best friend answered, not really feeling the slightest fear in talking to the sadist. Those two had the same expression, cold, but the Tohru he knew was always afraid of his superior as he heard from the junior monk that his friend was blackmailed and threaten to be killed many times. It was weird. Why did the leader now bother caring for her new 'family' members? She didn´t do it before. So why? Because she felt pity? Because it was horrifying for her? She wanted to change? There were many possibilities… But none of them answered his question whether the person in front of him was Tohru, the Tohru he knew, and it seemed the dark-haired teen would be disappointed by end of the other´s sentence.

"It´s Natsuno, right?" There was a little hope, just to make it disappear. The Shiki hummed for a second in thoughts and immediately added in sing song voice.

"Ah whoops my bad, you don´t like to be called Natsuno… Then it´s Yuuki-kun right?"

Natsuno froze and stared at him with disbelief which slightly turned into a glare. That couldn´t be his friend. However the person ignored him and shook it off like it was the most normal thing to do. Tatsumi only yawned.

"Get changed and put your hand back on, we need to meet Master Sunako."

"Roger!"

The blond sang, not coughing anymore, probably because his body was healed by now. Not having anything to comment, the younger jinrou followed Tatsumi out of the room.

This time the awkward silence didn´t reappear since Tatsumi was in no mood to deal with it, even if his master had trouble to start the topic and ended up giving the jinrou a chance to state the situation.

"He is the problem"

Tatsumi didn´t bother to point at the blond, everybody more or less had a clue now.

"While you were playing a high school student, he jumped in front of trains and... you know what I mean?"

There was no response from the teen. But the older male didn´t need an affirmation whether the boy knew or not, so he continued.

"And the fact we are out of solutions and by the knowledge of an expert, he is a hopeless case. We could put him in a psychiatric ward, but… There are already too many things wrong. First we aren´t humans and this idiot gets better in escaping. He could get violent if somebody seemed unfriendly to him, right doctor?"

The addressed man only grumbled and rubbed his arm, hearing Tohru snickering.

The situation itself appeared to be unrealistic. However when did this made sense after the arrival of the damn family? The dark-haired teen was feeling slightly relieved though being angry for a reason, the anger which he had when his best friend turned him into one. Natsuno was pissed at the time where his friend decided to act wimpy and scared instead of escaping with him. Later on, it revealed that he was afraid for his family. This only weak point made him turn his offer down and killed him, not to forget that pink-haired witch played a certain role in this part. Normally, he would despise him if he didn´t know the good natured side of his best friend. On the top of that, he preferred the happy and friendly Tohru than the person, staring at him calm and mocking. The teen disliked it, it was as if that face insulted his friend though he wouldn´t admit out loud… And never think about ever again…

But that didn´t matter, he was angry and had the urge to leave this place with Tohru, despite having him with such a personality; it was his friend´s fault turning him into one and this time he really wouldn´t forgive him if he decided to die selfishly. He will make sure that he will suffer with him.

"You want me to take care of him?"

Finally Natsuno managed to say something, making it sound like Tatsumi was proposing a stupid idea. But the older man still nodded, receiving a chuckle from the other side, Tohru who suddenly stood in the corner. Probably nobody paid attention that the blond Shiki moved to another place to jump scare one of the attendants in the room; the victim was for some reason Sunako.

"What if he don´t turn normal… What will happen then?"

The boy disliked his question, but he knew more than anyone else that having a mind broken person to turn in his previous state was more difficult than people think, as his father never returned normal, even when he was here. So what made Tohru like that? When he believed that he killed Natsuno, he acted sane enough unlike the person right now whose attention went to the ceiling.

"Nothing… I guess… It´s not like we can do anything. Master Sunako would be sad for a while"

The girl flinched.

"For a while?

" "In the end, we come to the conclusion, it is self defense. Isn´t it better to let him stay like this? If the Tohru doesn´t come back, wouldn´t it mean he wants to stay hidden…"

Tatsumi abruptly turned to his master to look her directly in the eyes.

"Why don´t we skip it and leave Tohru like-"

"Can I tell my opinion now?"

Both, Sunako and Tatsumi, moved their gaze towards the dark haired boy.

"You have made a fuss about everything and you shown me that Tohru-chan is alive. Now you want me to go away and forget that this happened; or do you plan on killing me afterwards?"

The doctor scoffed at the question.

"Of course they will and Seishin isn´t in the room. What would stop them?"

Hissing, Sunako stood up and glared at him.

"No! We won´t. If there is a chance we should use it. It doesn´t matter how much time flows, problems like this doesn´t simply disappear and I want to help…"

She turned to her blond servant.

"You don´t mind being around Yuuki?"

Tohru shrugged in response.

"That´s good so-"

"I am going to take him with me", the teen interrupted, staring at the baffled expression of the leader.

"Wait, no, you will come here."

"I won´t come to this place-ever again."

"But Tohru belongs to the family"

"No he doesn´t and he is my friend who you made into a soulless puppet. On the top of that, I am a jinrou because of him, so obviously I will drag him with me for the rest of my life as it can be pretty stupid if everybody I knew die because of age"

"Well… that´s a valid point….But he needs blood which you can´t offer and he constantly starving himself." Obviously the first part was a lie.

"First of all, I am not gullible, so I know I am not dead. He can feed from me and second, don´t you have those blood pills you gave me. There many ways to make him drink blood."

"Well he could appear for work and make Yuuki´s life to hell at his home."

"Tatsumi whose side are you?"

"Master Sunako, I think you haven´t experienced him after reading some girly vampires novels and mimicked them while I was asleep... It went on for two weeks"

"I am sorry. I was interested how they portrayed similar beings to ours since it was so popular…"

While Sunako and Tatsumi were focused on talking which book they should hide in the near future, Tohru lead the two remaining people out of the room. Dr. Ozaki for some reason stayed and only the two younger ones left. Since only Tohru had a driver license, he drove a car which nobody minded being taken surprisingly. For a split second the teen almost could hear a person´s scream, saying Tohru-chan. The voice reminded him of a certain scrawny good for nothing or maybe he it was his imagination. When Mr. Muroi drove it took him more than three hours to get to the wanted place, so the boy decided to take a nap, only to have the same dream which hunted him until now.

Water, he couldn´t move… and the stupid pair of eyes, yes it was the same. However the world went a few shaded lighter and he could distinguish a figure. The figure dragged another person with his left hand while the other grabbed him. He saw himself being dragged away from the pile of corpses on which he was laying before and was now thrown into a dark hole in the ground. Then the person followed him and swam, holding tight on the bodies moving with him. It became darker and darker… until a voice interrupted.

"Hello? Anyone here? Hello?"

Natsuno grumbled by the several poking directed to his face.

"What? Are we here?"

Though having in mind that he never saw a person similar to the outer appearance like Tohru near his neighborhood, Natsuno wouldn´t be surprised if the Shiki knew too where he lived

"No I parked at a filling station. I was wondering whether you needed to pee."

Natsuno looked at him with squinted eyes.

"Well you grimaced when I shook a water bottle in front of your face"

The jinrou´s hands were already grabbing the turtle neck of the Shiki, but let it go when he heard a knock on the window. The teen was startled by the sight of his own father. Then he noticed that they weren´t at a gas station.

"Natsuno! I was so worried!"

The grey-haired male didn´t wait until the door was open and clutched his son tightly over the rolled down glass. Why did he always do that when he came home late at the night? After some struggle and pulling, his father was freed from the car´s window frame and hid behind his son. Natsuno normally would ask for the reason behind his father´s behavior. But it was his father who never gave him a proper answer. There was no real exchange of words though a normal person would explain the situation when another person started to stay at their house… for like forever… They went inside, having Tohru silently following them.

The house had three bedrooms. Sometimes the boy thought that the unused room should be for his mother, as his father rarely, mentioned that she would come home and sleep in this room because she wouldn´t want to wake up anyone. However the boy already knew she wouldn´t, maybe his father didn´t realize it since he saw his son `return´ and believed she would too. Natsuno shook his head and lead the blond to his room instead of the vacant one.

"You will sleep here."

"You don´t trust me at all, right?"

"Yep"

With the small exchange of words, Natsuno pulled out a spare mattress under his bed.

"Quite prepared, aren´t you?"

"Akira and Kaori happen to visit me from time to time… You still know them?"

Tohru only nodded to answer. There was silence for a moment as Natsuno sat down at his desk. He then turned around to face the Shiki who was studying every inch of his room. The boy wanted to hear the story how he escaped the fire. But Tohru revealed something else than the wanted story.

" You´re a disappointment, Natsuno."

**A.N: Thank you for reading so far. I just realized that Natsuno only waited to meet Tohru in the last chapters while Tohru is acting weird…And that was all the plot though I only wanted to make an happy ending where I wouldn´t feel all sad about the tragedy. Because tragic stories don´t care whether your heart is being torn out of your ribcage and smashed in itsy bitsy pieces, but that´s their purpose, destroy your heart… Well now I am kind of dick to myself where I make things complicated because reality is a dick too. (even if there are Shikis in it… and becomes more horrible). Reviews are like always welcome!**


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